Novel quantum magnets: Dipolar quantum gases

Experimental creation of chromium condensate with large magnetic dipole moment and ultracold polar molecules with large electric dipole moment has generated significant interest in dipolar quantum gases. The long-range and anisotropic nature of the dipolar interaction potential greatly enriches the properties of the system, many of which are not present in their non-dipolar counterparts. In this talk, I will present our recent studies on dipolar BEC as well as dipolar fermions, with the emphasis on the latter which is relatively less studied. From a semi-classical calculation based upon the phase space representation of the Fermi gas, I will show how the dipolar interaction deforms the Fermi surface and manifests itself in collective excitations and time-of-flight expansion dynamics of the cloud. Finally, I will describe a self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory that also takes dipolar induced fermionic superfluid pairing into account.