Momentum distribution of harmonically confined Fermions

Motivated by the very recent cooling down to a fraction of the Fermi temper ature of the stable Fermion isotope K-40 in a magnetic trap, a fully analyt ical study is presented here of the T = 0 momentum distribution of harmonic ally confined non-interacting Fermions. Exact quantal equations are supplem ented by a treatment of the semiclassical limit. In addition to the zero te mperature limit, analytic results for the momentum distribution are also ob tained, again for harmonic confinement, but now with Maxwell-Boltzmann stat istics. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.