Spin-polarized fermions with p -wave interactions

Abstract

We study quantum degenerate Fermi gases of ${^6}$Li atoms at high densities ($10^{15}$ cm$^{-3}$) and observe elastic and inelastic $p$-wave collisions far away from any Feshbach resonance. $P$-wave evaporation reaches temperatures of $T/T_F=0.42$ partially limited by the slow transfer of energy from high to low velocities through $p$-wave collisions. Via cross-dimensional thermalization, the $p$-wave background scattering volume is determined to be $\lvert V_p \rvert =(39^{+1.3}_{-1.6}a_0)^3$. $P$-wave dipolar relaxation creates a metastable mixture of the lowest and highest hyperfine states.