Decay and revival of a transient trapped Fermi condensate

Abstract

We study experimentally and theoretically the response of a two-component Fermi condensate in the strongly interacting regime to a quench of the interaction strength. The quench is realized using a radiofrequency π-pulse to a third internal level with a different interaction strength. We find that the quench excites the monopole mode of the trap in the hydrodynamic regime, and that an initial change of the condensate properties takes place on a timescale comparable or even larger than the quasiparticle relaxation time.