Realization of a SU(2)xSU(6) System of Fermions in a Cold Atomic Gas

We report the realization of a novel degenerate Fermi mixture with an SU(2)xSU(6) symmetry in a cold atomic gas. We successfully cool the mixture of the two fermionic isotopes of ytterbium 171Yb with the nuclear spin I=1/2 and 173Yb with I=5/2 below the Fermi temperature TF as 0.46TF for 171Yb and 0.54TF for 173Yb. The same scattering lengths for different spin components make this mixture featured with the novel SU(2)xSU(6) symmetry. The nuclear spin components are separately imaged by exploiting an optical Stern-Gerlach effect. In addition, the mixture is loaded into a 3D optical lattice to implement the SU(2)xSU(6) Hubbard model. This mixture will open the door to the study of novel quantum phases such as a spinor Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-like fermionic superfluid.