Atom-molecule equilibration in a degenerate Fermi gas with resonant interactions

Abstract

We present a nonequilibrium kinetic theory describing atom-molecule population dynamics in a two-component Fermi gas with a Feshbach resonance. Key collision integrals emerge that govern the relaxation of the atom-molecule mixture to chemical and thermal equilibrium. Our focus is on the pseudogap regime where molecules form above the superfluid transition temperature. In this regime, we formulate a simple model for the atom-molecule population dynamics. The model predicts the saturation of molecule formation that has been observed in recent experiments, and indicates that a dramatic enhancement of the atom-molecule conversion efficiency occurs at low temperatures.

Updated manuscript on July 5, 2004. Four pages with three embedded figures

References in corpus (14)

• Observation of resonance condensation of fermionic atom pairs
• Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms Near a Feshbach Resonance
• Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• Creation of ultracold molecules from a Fermi gas of atoms
• Crossover from a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate to a degenerate Fermi gas
• Weakly bound dimers of fermionic atoms
• Conversion of an Atomic Fermi Gas to a Long-Lived Molecular Bose Gas
• Production of Long-Lived Ultracold Li2 Molecules from a Fermi gas
• Pure Gas of Optically Trapped Molecules Created from Fermionic Atoms
• Dissociation and Decay of Ultra-cold Sodium Molecules
• An effective theory of Feshbach resonances and many-body properties of Fermi gases
• The nature of Feshbach molecules in Bose-Einstein condensates
• Thermal equilibrium and efficient evaporation of an ultracold atom-molecule mixture
• Phase diagrams for an ideal gas mixture of fermionic atoms and bosonic molecules

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Production of cold molecules via magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances
• Production efficiency of Feshbach molecules in fermion systems
• Molecular production in two-component atomic Fermi gases
• Theory of Feshbach molecule formation in a dilute gas during a magnetic field ramp
• Simple Mean-Field Theory for a Zero-Temperature Fermi Gas at a Feshbach Resonance
• Feshbach-Resonant Interactions in 40K and 6Li Degenerate Fermi Gases
• Molecular production at a wide Feshbach resonance in Fermi-gas of cooled atoms
• Conversion Efficiencies of Heteronuclear Feshbach Molecules
• Adiabatic Phase Diagram of an Ultracold Atomic Fermi Gas with a Feshbach Resonance
• Molecular formations in ultracold mixtures of interacting and noninteracting atomic gases
• Stochastic and equilibrium pictures of the ultracold FFR molecular conversion rate
• Ultracold Fermion Cooling Cycle using Heteronuclear Feshbach Resonances