Spin-energy correlation in degenerate weakly interacting Fermi gases

Journal Article · 19 June 2019 · Physical Review A

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.99.063620 · OSTI ID:1527134

Pegahan, Saeed ^[1]; Kangara, Jayampathi ^[2]; Arakelyan, Ilya ^[2]; Thomas, John E. ^[2]

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1. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); North Carolina State University
2. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)

Weakly interacting Fermi gases exhibit rich collective dynamics in spin-dependent potentials, arising from correlations between spin degrees of freedom and conserved single-atom energies, offering broad prospects for simulating many-body quantum systems by engineering energy-space “lattices,” with controlled energy landscapes and site-to-site interactions. Using quantum-degenerate clouds of ⁶Li, confined in a spin-dependent harmonic potential, we measure complex, time-dependent spin-density profiles, varying on length scales much smaller than the cloud size. We demonstrate that a one-dimensional mean-field model, without additional simplifying approximations, quantitatively predicts the observed fine structure. We calculate the magnetic fields where the scattering lengths vanish for three different hyperfine state mixtures to provide constraints on the collisional (Feshbach) resonance parameters.

• Research Organization: North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Air Force Office of Scientific Research; National Science Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0008646
• OSTI ID: 1527134
• Journal Information: Physical Review A, Journal Name: Physical Review A Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 99; ISSN PLRAAN; ISSN 2469-9926
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English