Observation of Shock Waves in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas
J. A. Joseph, John E. Thomas, Manas Kulkarni +1 more
We study collisions between two strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas clouds. We observe exotic nonlinear hydrodynamic behavior, distinguished by the formation of a very sharp and stable density peak as the clouds collide and subsequent evolution into a boxlike shape. We model the nonlinear dynamics of these collisions by using quasi-1D hydrodynamic equations. Our simulations of the time-dependent density profiles agree very well with the data and provide clear evidence of shock wave formation in this universal quantum hydrodynamic system.
arXiv:1012.2885•Physical Review Letters•Apr 11, 2011•103 citations