Probing local quantities in a strongly interacting Fermi gas

Abstract

The collective behavior of an ensemble of strongly interacting fermions is central to many physical systems, and its theoretical description is challenging due to the many-body nature of the problem. The ultracold Fermi gas is an ideal model system to shed light on this issue, as it provides excellent controllability, reproducibility, and unique detection methods. One of the problems, however, which complicates the interpretation of such experiments is the inherent density inhomogeneity of the gas due to harmonic confinement. We have developed a technique to overcome this difficulty by selectively probing atoms near the center of a trapped gas while still retaining momentum resolution. In this contribution to the 21th International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy (ICOLS 2013), we give an overview of this technique and some of the observations that have resulted from its implementation. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.