Speaker
Description
Ultracold gases of paramagnetic atoms or dipolar molecules are fascinating in the quantum degenerate regime, to be sure. However, even a thermal gas consisting of these entities may have unusual features. Specifically, polar molecules with sufficiently large dipole moment can enter the hydrodynamic regime, where the mean-free path for collisions is far smaller than the scale of structures in the gas, for example, the wavelength of sound. In this circumstance it is plausible to consider the gas as a fluid, governed by Navier-Stokes type equations, but with the novelty that transport coefficients, such as heat conduction and viscosity, are anisotropic. I present a formulation of these equations and some preliminary results on sound modes as well as “weltering” dynamics that occurs in a trapped gaseous sample.
