Ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density for trapped fermions in the unitarity limit

Journal Article · Sat Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2007 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.76.063618· OSTI ID:21140690

Schaefer, T ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695 (United States)

We extract the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio {eta}/s of cold fermionic atoms in the unitarity limit from experimental data on the damping of collective excitations. We find that near the critical temperature {eta}/s is roughly equal to 1/2 in units of ({Dirac_h}/2{pi})/k{sub B}. With the possible exception of the quark gluon plasma, this value is closer to the conjectured lower bound 1/(4{pi}) than any other known liquid.

• OSTI ID: 21140690
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 76, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.063618; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ATOMS
COLLECTIVE EXCITATIONS
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
DAMPING
DENSITY
ENTROPY
EXCEPTIONS
EXCITED STATES
FERMI GAS
FERMIONS
GLUONS
LIQUIDS
QUARK MATTER
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0000-0013 K
TRAPPING
UNITARITY
VISCOSITY