Synthetic $p$-wave scattering in a degenerate Fermi gas

$P$-wave superfluids are fascinating for a number of reasons; perhaps the most notable of these is their ability to support Majorana-type excitations [1]. Unfortunately, attempts to use $p$-wave Feshbach resonances to produce superfluid states in ultracold, fermionic gases have substantially failed due to to the large inelastic loss rates associated with those resonances [2,3]. We demonstrate a new approach to the problem: we use optical Raman dressing to artificially engineer the scattering properties. This allows us to convert the scattering strength of an $s$-wave Feshbach resonance into a strong $p$-wave interaction in an ultracold gas of $^{40}$K atoms. Our prior success in engineering $d$- and $g$-wave scattering in a degenerate Bose gas [4] is strong evidence for the viability of this technique. \\[4pt] [1] V. Gurarie and L. Radzihovsky, \textit{Phys. Rev. B} \textbf{75}, 212509 (2007). \\[0pt] [2] C. Chin, et al., \textit{Rev. Mod. Phys.} \textbf{82}, 1225 (2010). \\[0pt] [3] C. A. Regal, et al., \textit{Phys. Rev. Lett.} \textbf{90}, 053201 (2003). \\[0pt] [4] R. A. Williams, et al., \textit{Science} 335, 314 (2012).