Quantitative probe of pairing correlations in a cold fermionic-atom gas

Abstract

A quantitative measure of the pairing correlations present in a cold gas of fermionic atoms can be obtained by studying the dependence of rf spectra on hyperfine-state populations. This proposal follows from a sum rule that relates the total interaction energy of the gas to rf spectrum line positions. We argue that this indicator of pairing correlations provides information comparable to that available from the spin-susceptibility and NMR measurements common in condensed-matter systems. © 2005 The American Physical Society.