Giant Spin Oscillations in an Ultracold Fermi Sea

Abstract

Collective Coherent Spin Dynamics Ultracold gases have shown considerable promise for the quantum simulation of more complicated systems, such as correlated electrons in solids. Usually, researchers use two hyperfine states of the atoms to correspond to the spin up and down states of the electrons; however, these gases typically have a much richer internal state structure. Krauser et al. (p. 157 ) observed the coherent behavior of a gas of potassium-40 atoms that had 10 accessible internal spin states and that evolved through collisions. The spin state of the system oscillated as a whole, a surprising finding given that the atoms are fermions.