Trapped Fermi Gases as Models of Strongly Interacting Matter

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This experimental research program is aimed at using an optically trapped, ultra cold, strongly interacting Fermi gas of atoms as a model for the exotic, strongly interacting Fermi systems comprising nuclear matter. The experiments will employ all-optical methods. An ultra stable carbon dixide laser trap will be loaded with a mixture of spin-up and spin-down Fermionic Li-6 atoms to directly produce highly degenerate, strongly interacting mixtures by forced evaporation near a Feshbach resonance. The goals of this program include three topics which are relevant to nuclear matter: i) The study of hydrodynamic expansion of the gas in the non-superfluid regime versus the super-fluid regime, including anisotropy, shear and viscosity, and surface tension; ii) Precision measurement of universal interactions; iii) Measurements of density modulation in Fermi gases with unequal spin mixtures. The broader impact of the program involves student education as well as applications to materials science and condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, high-energy physics, and astrophysics.