Observation of a ferromagnetic instability in repulsively interacting Fermi gases of 6Li
Whether a spin-1/2 Fermi gas will become ferromagnetic as the strength of repulsive interaction increases is a long-standing controversial issue. Recently this problem has been studied experimentally by Jo et al. [Science 325, 1521 (2009)] in which the authors claim a ferromagnetic transition is observed. This work is to point out the results of this experiment cannot distinguish whether the system is in a ferromagnetic state or in a nonmagnetic but strongly short-range correlated state. A conclusive experimental demonstration of ferromagnetism relies on the observation of ferromagnetic domains.