Publications [#248493] of John E. Thomas

Papers Published

1. Joseph, JA; Thomas, JE; Kulkarni, M; Abanov, AG, Observation of shock waves in a strongly interacting Fermi gas., Physical review letters, vol. 106 no. 15 (April, 2011), pp. 150401 [21568532], [doi]
   (last updated on 2026/01/13)

   Abstract:
   We study collisions between two strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas clouds. We observe exotic nonlinear hydrodynamic behavior, distinguished by the formation of a very sharp and stable density peak as the clouds collide and subsequent evolution into a boxlike shape. We model the nonlinear dynamics of these collisions by using quasi-1D hydrodynamic equations. Our simulations of the time-dependent density profiles agree very well with the data and provide clear evidence of shock wave formation in this universal quantum hydrodynamic system.