Anomalous Expansion of Attractively Interacting Fermionic Atoms in an Optical Lattice

The interplay of thermodynamics and quantum correlations can give rise to counterintuitive phenomena in many-body systems. We report on an isentropic effect in a spin mixture of attractively interacting fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. As we adiabatically increase the attraction between the at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2010-03, Vol.327 (5973), p.1621-1624
Main Authors: Hackermüller, Lucia, Schneider, Ulrich, Moreno-Cardoner, Maria, Kitagawa, Takuya, Best, Thorsten, Will, Sebastian, Demler, Eugene, Altman, Ehud, Bloch, Immanuel, Paredes, Belén
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic interactions
Atoms
Atoms & subatomic particles
Compressibility
Energy
Entropy
Exact sciences and technology
Lasers
Particle interactions
Particle spin
Physics
Quantum physics
Strong nuclear force
The physics of elementary particles and fields
Thermodynamics
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Summary:The interplay of thermodynamics and quantum correlations can give rise to counterintuitive phenomena in many-body systems. We report on an isentropic effect in a spin mixture of attractively interacting fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. As we adiabatically increase the attraction between the atoms, we observe that the gas expands instead of contracting. This unexpected behavior demonstrates the crucial role of the lattice potential in the thermodynamics of the fermionic Hubbard model.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1184565