Fermion gas achieves quantum degeneracy

DeMarco, Jin Jin

Elsayed K. Elmaghraby

A century old methodology for deriving statistical distribution using approximate Stirling’s formulation of the factorial becomes questionable. By avoiding the use of exaggerated approximations, a new picture of the energy distribution of fermions and bosons are presented. Energy distribution among fermions (or bosons) in systems with finite degeneracy are found to be degeneracy dependent. The presented point of view explains, successfully, presence of degeneracy pressure in ultra-cooled Fermi gas and predicts the minimum accessible temperature for finite degeneracy fermions system.

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.