Universal sound diffusion in a strongly interacting Fermi gas
Name
1909.02555.pdf
Description
Submitted version
Size
3.74 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c44845720ce462b0f1a426285dcbbf73
Author(s)
Patel, Parth B
Yan, Zhenjie
Mukherjee, Biswaroop
Fletcher, Richard J
Struck, Julian
Zwierlein, Martin W
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Citation
Patel, Parth B, Yan, Zhenjie, Mukherjee, Biswaroop, Fletcher, Richard J, Struck, Julian et al. 2020. "Universal sound diffusion in a strongly interacting Fermi gas." Science, 370 (6521).
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
© 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved. Transport of strongly interacting fermions is crucial for the properties of modern materials, nuclear fission, the merging of neutron stars, and the expansion of the early Universe. Here, we observe a universal quantum limit of diffusivity in a homogeneous, strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas by studying sound propagation and its attenuation through the coupled transport of momentum and heat. In the normal state, the sound diffusivity D monotonically decreases upon lowering the temperature, in contrast to the diverging behavior of weakly interacting Fermi liquids. Below the superfluid transition temperature, D attains a universal value set by the ratio of Planck's constant and the particle mass. Our findings inform theories of fermion transport, with relevance for hydrodynamic flow of electrons, neutrons, and quarks.
MIT Department
MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIENCE.AAZ5756
