Fermionic Condensate: A State of Matter?

[Qinger]

Hi people!

I was just wondering if Fermionic Condensate (FC) can be considered as a state of matter because Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is. And since BEC is made of of bosons and FC is made up of fermions, can FC be considered as a state of matter?

 

[hiyok]

I don't think there is FC in the same sense as BEC, for Pauli's principle

 

[Cthugha]

In principle yes. If you have a fermionic system, which can undergo a BCS-BEC transition you will find the FC on the BCS side of the transition. In the first real experimental report on FC (Regal et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 040403 (2004)) the FC was defined as "condensation [...] in which the underlying Fermi statistics of the paired particles play an essential role". This means you have something like cooper pairs of fermions in the BCS regime, while you have bound molecules of fermions in the BEC regime.