Dynamical Properties of the Unitary Fermi Gas: Collective Modes and Shock Waves

We discuss the unitary Fermi gas made of dilute and ultracold atoms with an infinite s-wave inter-atomic scattering length. First we introduce an efficient Thomas–Fermi–von Weizsacker density functional which describes accurately various static properties of the unitary Fermi gas trapped by an external potential. Then, the sound velocity and the collective frequencies of oscillations in a harmonic trap are derived from extended superfluid hydrodynamic equations which are the Euler–Lagrange equations of a Thomas–Fermi–von Weizsacker action functional. Finally, we show that this amazing Fermi gas supports supersonic and subsonic shock waves.