2007/11/30 by Bout Marcelis, B. Marcelis, S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.77.032707
published as Phys. Rev. A 77, 032707 (2008) · 14 pages, 4 figures, published version
openalex publication_date 2008/03/13 · arxiv created 2008/03/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider collisional properties of weakly bound heteronuclear molecules (dimers) formed in a two-species mixture of atoms with a large mass difference. We focus on dimers containing light fermionic atoms as they manifest collisional stability due to an effective dimer-dimer repulsion originating from the exchange of the light atoms. In order to solve the dimer-dimer scattering problem we develop a theoretical approach, which provides a physically transparent and quantitative description of this four-atom system in terms of three- and two-body observables. We calculate the elastic scattering amplitude and the rates of inelastic processes such as the trimer formation and the relaxation of dimers into deeply bound molecular states. Irrespective of whether the heavy atoms are bosons or fermions, the inelastic rate can be significantly lower than the rate of elastic collisions. Moreover, the measurement of the inelastic rate which is a four-body observable, can be an efficient and precise tool for determining three-body observables such as the three-body parameter, positions of Efimov states, and their lifetimes.