Local observation of pair-condensation in a Fermi gas at unitarity

TL;DR

This paper reports on local measurements of the density response in a unitary Fermi gas, revealing pair condensation signatures indicative of superfluidity through spatially resolved Bragg spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a method for local measurement of the response function in a trapped Fermi gas, enabling detection of pair condensation and superfluid transition signatures.

Findings

Observation of pair-condensation signatures below the superfluid transition temperature

Development of a generalized local measurement scheme for homogeneous parameters

Demonstration of spatially resolved Bragg spectroscopy for local response analysis

Abstract

We present measurements of the local (homogeneous) density-density response function of a Fermi gas at unitarity using spatially resolved Bragg spectroscopy. By analyzing the Bragg response across one axis of the cloud we extract the response function for a uniform gas which shows a clear signature of the Bose-Einstein condensation of pairs of fermions when the local temperature drops below the superfluid transition temperature. The method we use for local measurement generalizes a scheme for obtaining the local pressure in a harmonically trapped cloud from the line density and can be adapted to provide any homogeneous parameter satisfying the local density approximation.