Optical Linewidth of a Low Density Fermi-Dirac Gas

Abstract

We study propagation of light in a Fermi-Dirac gas. We analytically obtain the leading density correction to the optical linewidth at zero temperature. This correction is a direct consequence of the quantum statistical correlations of atomic positions that modify the optical interactions between the atoms at small interatomic separations. The gas exhibits a dramatic line narrowing already at very low densities.