Editing Fermionic condensate (section)

=== Fermionic superfluids ===
It is far more difficult to produce a fermionic superfluid than a bosonic one, because the [[Pauli exclusion principle]] prohibits fermions from occupying the same [[quantum state]]. However, there is a well-known mechanism by which a superfluid may be formed from fermions: That mechanism is the [[BCS theory|BCS transition]], discovered in 1957 by [[John Bardeen|J.&nbsp;Bardeen]], [[Leon Neil Cooper|L.N.&nbsp;Cooper]], and [[John Robert Schrieffer|R.&nbsp;Schrieffer]] for describing superconductivity. These authors showed that, below a certain temperature, electrons (which are fermions) can pair up to form bound pairs now known as [[Cooper pair]]s. As long as collisions with the ionic lattice of the solid do not supply enough energy to break the Cooper pairs, the electron fluid will be able to flow without dissipation. As a result, it becomes a superfluid, and the material through which it flows a superconductor.

The BCS theory was phenomenally successful in describing superconductors. Soon after the publication of the BCS paper, several theorists proposed that a similar phenomenon could occur in fluids made up of fermions other than electrons, such as [[helium-3]] atoms. These speculations were confirmed in 1971, when experiments performed by [[Douglas D. Osheroff|D.D.&nbsp;Osheroff]] showed that helium-3 becomes a superfluid below 0.0025&nbsp;K. It was soon verified that the superfluidity of helium-3 arises from a BCS-like mechanism.{{efn|The theory of superfluid helium-3 is a little more complicated than the BCS theory of superconductivity. These complications arise because helium atoms repel each other much more strongly than electrons, but the basic idea is the same.}}