Kathryn Levin, U. Chicago
What do high Tc superconductors teach us about ultracold Fermi gases and vice versa?
Argonne Physics Division Colloquium - 12 Nov 2010
11:00 AM, Building 203 auditorium

Cold Fermionic superfluid gases have brought together a number of physics sub-disciplines ranging from atomic molecular and optical (AMO) to condensed matter and finally also particle (ie., quark-gluon plasma) physics as well. This talk will emphasize this unique inter-disciplinarity and will summarize the almost heroic accomplishments (since 2003) of the experimental AMO community in characterizing these ultracold Fermi gases. Most notable are the development of new tools which have close analogies with condensed matter probes such as photoemission, transport and scattering.

With these analogue probes in hand, we end by presenting the case that these ultracold Fermi superfluids may be also be a laboratory for learning about the high Tc superconductors. In this context we discuss the observation of pseudogap effects in the cold gases which are central to our understanding of the cuprates. Finally, we address a central paradox in the cuprates, the so-called "two gap" behavior and show how it has a natural counterpart in the cold gases.

Argonne Physics Division Colloquium Schedule