Realization of a SU(2)×SU(6) System of Fermions in a Cold Atomic Gas
Abstract
We report the realization of a novel degenerate Fermi mixture with an SU(2)×SU(6) symmetry in a cold atomic gas. We successfully cool the mixture of the two fermionic isotopes of ytterbium Yb171 with the nuclear spin I=1/2 and Yb173 with I=5/2 below the Fermi temperature TF as 0.46TF for Yb171 and 0.54TF for Yb173. The same scattering lengths for different spin components make this mixture featured with the novel SU(2)×SU(6) symmetry. The nuclear spin components are separately imaged by exploiting an optical Stern-Gerlach effect. In addition, the mixture is loaded into a 3D optical lattice to implement the SU(2)×SU(6) Hubbard model. This mixture will open the door to the study of novel quantum phases such as a spinor Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-like fermionic superfluid.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- November 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.190401
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1005.3670
- Bibcode:
- 2010PhRvL.105s0401T
- Keywords:
-
- 05.30.Fk;
- 03.75.Ss;
- 37.10.Jk;
- 67.85.Lm;
- Fermion systems and electron gas;
- Degenerate Fermi gases;
- Atoms in optical lattices;
- Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases;
- Physics - Atomic Physics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 5 figures V2: revised references