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      Vortices and Superfluidity in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas

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          Abstract

          Quantum-degenerate Fermi gases provide a remarkable opportunity to study strongly interacting fermions. In contrast to other Fermi systems, such as superconductors, neutron stars or the quark-gluon plasma, these gases have low densities and their interactions can be precisely controlled over an enormous range. Here we report observations of vortices in such a gas that provide definitive evidence for superfluidity. By varying the pairing strength between two fermions near a Feshbach resonance, one can explore the crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid of loosely bound pairs whose size is comparable to, or even larger than, the interparticle spacing. The crossover realizes a novel form of high-T_C superfluidity and it may provide new insight for high-T_C superconductors. Previous experiments with Fermi gases have revealed condensation of fermion pairs. While these and other studies were consistent with predictions assuming superfluidity, the smoking gun for superfluid behavior has been elusive. Our observation of vortex lattices directly displays superfluid flow in a strongly interacting, rotating Fermi gas.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          26 May 2005
          Article
          10.1038/nature03858
          cond-mat/0505635
          8e4112ad-2639-4460-bbd8-25fad47ab72c
          History
          Custom metadata
          Nature 435, 1047-1051 (2005)
          14 pages, including 7 figures, submitted to Nature
          cond-mat.supr-con

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