| Strongly interacting Fermi gases are unique quantum fluids that can be used to model other strongly interacting systems in nature, such as the quark-gluon plasma of the big bang, high temperature superconductors, and nuclear matter. This is made possible through the use of a collisional resonance, producing a gas in which the scattering length far exceeds the interparticle spacing. At the peak of the resonance, a strongly interacting Fermi gas is created which exhibits universal behavior, providing a test-bed for many-body theories in a variety of disciplines.;This dissertation presents an experimental study of the hydrodynamics of a strongly interacting Fermi gas with finite angular momentum in the superfluid and normal fluid regimes. The expansion dynamics of a rotating gas are modeled using a simple hydrodynamic theory based on the Euler equation and the equation of continuity. By including dissipative terms in the equations of motion, an estimate for the quantum viscosity eta of an ultracold Fermi gas in the strongly interacting regime is produced.;In addition to the hydrodynamic results, the thermodynamics of a strongly interacting gas is investigated through a model independent measurement of the entropy S of the gas as a function of energy E. This study allows the superfluid transition temperature in the strongly interacting regime to be estimated from T = ∂ E/∂S. The hydrodynamic and thermodynamic results can be used in conjunction to provide an estimate of the ratio of the viscosity to the entropy density, expressed as eta/s. A fundamental lower bound on this ratio is conjectured using string theory methods. When the experimental measurements are compared to the string theory conjecture, the results provide evidence that a strongly interacting Fermi gas is a near-perfect fluid. |
