Universality in strongly interacting Fermi gases

Experiments on ultra-cold atomic gases at nano-Kelvin temperatures are revolutionizing many areas of physics. Their exceptional adaptability and simplicity allows tests of many-body theory in areas long thought to be inaccessible, due to strong interactions. Ultra-cold Fermi gases are now providing new insight into the foundations of quantum theory. They are expected to exhibit a universal thermodynamic behaviour in the strongly interacting limit, independent of any microscopic details of the underlying interactions. Here, we present a systematic theoretical study of strong interacting fermions, using different field-theoretic methods and comparisons with quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Pioneering measurements have dramatically confirmed our theoretical predictions, giving the first known evidence for universal fermion thermodynamics