Our group studies ultracold gases near Absolute Zero temperature. At temperatures a million times colder than interstellar space, and at densities a million times thinner than air, quantum mechanics takes center stage: Atoms behave as waves, they interfere like laser light, and form novel states of matter, such as Bose-Einstein condensates and fermionic superfluids. In such a Fermi gas, atoms team up in pairs that can flow without friction. This has analogies to electron pairs in a superconductor that transport current without resistance. In contrast to bulk materials, we can freely tune the interaction between atoms and, for example, explore the crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate of tightly bound molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid of long-range fermion pairs. Our goal is to use these gases as model systems for strongly interacting quantum matter, from High-T_c superconductors to Neutron Stars.

The group of Prof. Martin Zwierlein is part of the Center for Ultracold Atoms, the Research Laboratory of Electronics and the Department of Physics.

Review on Ultracold Fermi Gases:
Wolfgang Ketterle and Martin W. Zwierlein

Making, probing and understanding ultracold Fermi gases

in Ultracold Fermi Gases, Proceedings of the International School of Physics  “Enrico Fermi”, Course CLXIV,

eds. M. Inguscio, W. Ketterle, and C. Salomon (Amsterdam, IOS Press, 2008), e-print: arXiv: 0801.2500.