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Title: Destroying Superfluidity by Rotating a Fermi Gas at Unitarity

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ;  [1]
  1. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Trento and CNR-INFM BEC Center, I-38050 Povo, Trento (Italy)

We study the effect of the rotation on a harmonically trapped Fermi gas at zero temperature under the assumption that vortices are not formed. We show that at unitarity the rotation produces a phase separation between a nonrotating superfluid (S) core and a rigidly rotating normal (N) gas. The interface between the two phases is characterized by a density discontinuity n{sub N}/n{sub S}=0.85, independent of the angular velocity. The depletion of the superfluid and the angular momentum of the rotating configuration are calculated as a function of the angular velocity. The conditions of stability are also discussed and the critical angular velocity for the onset of a spontaneous quadrupole deformation of the interface is evaluated.

OSTI ID:
21024778
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.070401; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English