Cold Atomic Gases and the Quest for Polarized Superfluids

Ongoing experimental efforts on systems of trapped cold atomic gases
are aimed at studying the effects of polarization on superfluid
pairing. Two different experimental groups encountered qualitative
discrepancies which were a function of the confining geometry and the
cooling protocol when studying 3D clouds of such gases. Looking
instead at gases confined by a 2D optical lattice to move
preferentially in one direction, the findings are consistent with the
predictions for 1D systems of dilute polarized attractive gases.  The
measurements are in quantitative agreement with theoretical
calculations (using a wide array of numerical and analytic techniques)
in which a partially polarized phase is found to be the 1D analogue of
the so called Fulde-Ferrell or Larkin-Ovchinnikov states. I will close
with a discussion of ideas for testing the stability and probing
further these strongly interacting systems.