Description
Momentum correlations within a Bose-Fermi mixture are affected by the different statistical properties of bosons and fermions, making their theoretical calculation non-trivial. By bringing $^3$He and $^4$He to degeneracy using a combination of sympathetic, evaporative and laser cooling techniques as outlined in [1,2], we can produce a Bose-Fermi mixture and investigate the interaction between bosons and fermions. An important set of observables for this are the momentum correlation functions, which describe the likelihood of detecting particles in different momentum states simultaneously. [3] These correlation functions have already been measured to show the effects of Hanbury-Brown Twiss bunching for bosons, [4] anti-bunching for fermions, as well as demonstrate the high back-to-back correlations in a scattering halo of momentum-entangled pairs. [3] In this project, we produce a scattering halo of pairs of bosons and fermions entangled in momentum space. Through measuring the momenta of the scattered particles, we can quantify how the different statistical properties of bosons and fermions affect the correlations between the momenta of our final particles. Of particular interest is the interplay between the Pauli-Exclusion principle for fermions, Hanbury-Brown-Twiss bunching for bosons, and the back-to-back correlations between scattered pairs of atoms.
| I am the presenting author | Yes |
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