Degenerate atom-molecule mixture in a cold Fermi gas

TL;DR

This paper investigates a unique atom-molecule mixture in a cold Fermi gas near a Feshbach resonance, highlighting the quantum degeneracy of molecules despite the atomic component being nearly non-degenerate, and proposes conditions for molecular BEC.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic model for the atom-molecule mixture and predicts optimal conditions for molecular Bose-Einstein condensation.

Findings

Atomic component is nearly non-degenerate.

Quantum degeneracy of molecules is significant.

Predicted conditions for molecular BEC.

Abstract

We show that the atom-molecule mixture formed in a degenerate atomic Fermi gas with interspecies repulsion near a Feshbach resonance, constitutes a peculiar system where the atomic component is almost non-degenerate but quantum degeneracy of molecules is important. We develop a thermodynamic approach for studying this mixture, explain experimental observations and predict optimal conditions for achieving molecular BEC.