Time-Resolved Observation of Competing Attractive and Repulsive Short-Range Correlations in Strongly Interacting Fermi Gases

We exploit a time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopic technique to study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of an ultracold two-component Fermi gas, selectively quenched to strong repulsion along the upper branch of a broad Feshbach resonance. For critical interactions, we find the rapid growth of short-range anticorrelations between repulsive fermions to initially overcome concurrent pairing processes. At longer evolution times, these two competing mechanisms appear to macroscopically coexist in a short-range correlated state of fermions and pairs, unforeseen thus far. Our work provides fundamental insights into the fate of a repulsive Fermi gas, and offers new perspectives towards the exploration of complex dynamical regimes of fermionic matter.