Hendricus Stoof

Who is Hendricus Stoof?

Hendricus T. C. Stoof is a professor in theoretical physics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His main interests are atomic physics, condensed matter physics and many-body physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

During the last ten years, the group of H.T.C. Stoof has been involved in the study of various aspects of the physics of ultracold atomic gases. In addition, they performed research on skyrmion lattices in the quantum Hall effect and collective modes in supersolid 4He. Below the results obtained from the study of degenerate Fermi gases are briefly summarized.

Already in 1996 they predicted that an atomic gas of 6Li becomes a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid at experimentally obtainable temperatures. They have also performed a detailed study of the superfluid behaviour of this gas below the critical temperature. Motivated by this work, at least six experimental groups from around the world, including the groups of R. Grimm, R.G. Hulet, D.S. Jin, and W. Ketterle, started trying to achieve the necessary conditions for the BCS transition in 6Li.