Thermodynamics of a Trapped Unitary Fermi Gas

TL;DR

This paper compares experimental measurements of entropy and critical temperature in a unitary Fermi gas with Monte Carlo calculations, confirming the predicted critical temperature value.

Contribution

It provides the first model-independent comparison between recent experimental data and comprehensive Monte Carlo results for a unitary Fermi gas.

Findings

Experimental critical temperature T_c=0.23(2)epsilon_F matches Monte Carlo predictions.

Experimental entropy measurements are consistent with theoretical models.

Validates Monte Carlo calculations with experimental data.

Abstract

We present the first model-independent comparison of recent measurements of the entropy and of the critical temperature of a unitary Fermi gas, performed by Luo et al., with the most complete results currently available from finite temperature Monte Carlo calculations. The measurement of the critical temperature in a cold fermionic atomic cloud is consistent with a value $T_c=0.23(2)epsilon_F$ in the bulk, as predicted by the present authors in their Monte Carlo calculations.