Fermionic condensate

A fermion condensate (including Fermi condensate) is a conditional by fermion superfluid state of aggregation at temperatures close to absolute zero. The effect is - analogous to the Bose -Einstein condensate of bosons - on the superposition of the wave functions of the fermions involved, then take this a single quantum state. Albert Einstein had predicted it in 1925.

Generation

Since fermions do not have the tendency to overlap ( Pauli principle ), this would imply a degeneracy in the spin quantum number. This is achieved in that two fermions ( with spin ½ ) to a boson ( spin 1 ) close together, which in turn condense to form a Bose -Einstein condensate.

One possibility is that, molecules of two fermions form, which behave as bosons. Bose -Einstein condensates of such molecules were first established in 2003 almost simultaneously by the groups led by Rudolf Grimm at the University of Innsbruck and Deborah Jin at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In contrast to the formation of molecules of two fermions is also conceivable that the two fermions interact over long distances, as for example, in the analog case, the electrons ( Cooper pairs ) takes place in superconductors. First steps in this direction were made in 2004 with an ultracold gas of potassium atoms in the laboratory of Deborah Jin. A similar effect is also responsible for the superfluidity of helium isotope 3He.

All these phenomena are possible only at extremely low temperatures.