Evidence for superfluidity in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Apr 16;92(15):150402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.150402. Epub 2004 Apr 13.

Abstract

We observe collective oscillations of a trapped, degenerate Fermi gas of 6Li atoms at a magnetic field just above a Feshbach resonance, where the two-body physics does not support a bound state. The gas exhibits a radial breathing mode at a frequency of 2837(05) Hz, in excellent agreement with the frequency of nu(H) identical with sqrt[10nu(x)nu(y)/3]=2830(20) Hz predicted for a hydrodynamic Fermi gas with unitarity-limited interactions. The measured damping times and frequencies are inconsistent with predictions for both the collisionless mean field regime and for collisional hydrodynamics. These observations provide the first evidence for superfluid hydrodynamics in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas.