ELECTROMAGNETICALLY-INDUCED ISOTHERMAL "GRAVITATIONAL" COLLAPSE IN MOLECULAR FERMIONIC GASES

We show that electromagnetically-induced isotropic dipole–dipole interactions in a spin-polarized non-degenerate fermionic gas can cause an extremely exothermic phase transition, analogous to the isothermal collapse in gravitationally interacting star clusters. This collapse may result in fragmentation of the gas into a hot "halo" and a highly degenerate "core". Possible realization is envisaged in microwave-illuminated fermionic molecular gases at microkelvin temperatures.