Pauli blocking of light scattering in degenerate fermions

Abstract

<jats:title>Photons not welcome</jats:title> <jats:p> Two identical fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state, or so says the Pauli principle. For a cold gas of fermionic atoms, this means that all states up to the Fermi energy will be occupied, with only the atoms with the highest energy able to change their state. Such conditions have long been predicted to suppress light scattering off gases because the atoms receiving a kick from collisions with photons would have no state to move to. Deb <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> ., Margalit <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> ., and Sanner <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . now describe this so-called Pauli blocking of light scattering. —JS </jats:p>