Observation of shock waves in a strongly interacting Fermi gas

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of shock waves in a strongly interacting Fermi gas, demonstrating nonlinear hydrodynamic behavior and validating models through simulations that match the observed density dynamics.

Contribution

First experimental observation of shock waves in a strongly interacting Fermi gas, supported by hydrodynamic modeling and simulations.

Findings

Observation of sharp density peaks during collisions

Formation of stable shock fronts in quantum hydrodynamics

Good agreement between simulations and experimental data

Abstract

We study collisions between two strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas clouds. We observe exotic nonlinear hydrodynamic behavior, distinguished by the formation of a very sharp and stable density peak as the clouds collide and subsequent evolution into a box-like shape. We model the nonlinear dynamics of these collisions using quasi-1D hydrodynamic equations. Our simulations of the time-dependent density profiles agree very well with the data and provide clear evidence of shock wave formation in this universal quantum hydrodynamic system.