Quantum degeneracy in a fermionic atom gas

B. Paredes, P. Zoller, J. I. Cirac

We study the physics of a rapidly rotating gas of ultracold atomic bosons, with an internal degree of freedom. We show that in the limit of rapid rotation of the trap the problem exactly maps onto that of noninteracting fermions with spin in the lowest Landau level. The spectrum of the real bosonic system is identical to the one of the effective fermions, with the same eigenvalues and the same density of states. When the ratio of the number of atoms to the spin degeneracy is an integer number, the ground state for the effective fermions is an integer quantum Hall state. The corresponding bosonic state is a fractional quantum Hall liquid whose filling factor ranges in the sequence $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2,2/3,3/4,\dots{},$ as the spin degeneracy increases. Anyons with $1/2,1/3,1/4,\dots{}$ statistics can be created by inserting lasers with the appropriate polarizations. A special situation appears when the spin degeneracy equals the number of atoms in the gas. The ground state is then the product of a completely antisymmetric spin state and a $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ Laughlin state. In this case the system exhibits fermionic excitations with fermionic statistics although the real components are bosonic atoms.

D. S. Jin

Andrew G. Truscott, Kevin E. Strecker, W. I. McAlexander +2 more

We report the attainment of simultaneous quantum degeneracy in a mixed gas of bosons (lithium-7) and fermions (lithium-6). The Fermi gas has been cooled to a temperature of 0.25 times the Fermi temperature by thermal collisions with the evaporatively cooled bosons. At this temperature, the spatial size of the gas is strongly affected by the Fermi pressure resulting from the Pauli exclusion principle and gives clear experimental evidence for quantum degeneracy.

Brian DeMarco, D. S. Jin

B. J. DeSalvo, Mi Yan, Pascal G. Mickelson +2 more

We report quantum degeneracy in a gas of ultracold fermionic (87)Sr atoms. By evaporatively cooling a mixture of spin states in an optical dipole trap for 10.5 s, we obtain samples well into the degenerate regime with T/T(F)=0.26(-0.06)(+0.05). The main signature of degeneracy is a change in the momentum distribution as measured by time-of-flight imaging, and we also observe a decrease in evaporation efficiency below T/T(F) ∼0.5.