Speaker
Prof.
Joseph Thywissen
(University of Toronto)
Description
The thermodynamic properties of unitary Fermi gases are called universal, since they do not depend on the strength or physical origin of their interactions. For the same reason, one might expect dynamics to be universal. We report on the growth of interactions and the loss of magnetization in a gas initialized with full transverse magnetization. Such a gas has no interaction energy, since each atom is in the same superposition of magnetic eigenstates. However, in the presence of a magnetic field gradient, this is a non-equilibrium state, and relaxes to an unmagnetized, fully interacting state, at higher temperature. We present our measurements of these dynamics, and discuss implications for our understanding of the unitary Fermi gas.
Author
Prof.
Joseph Thywissen
(University of Toronto)
