General Theoretical Description of N-Body Recombination

N. P. Mehta, Seth T. Rittenhouse, J. P. D’Incao, J. von Stecher, and Chris H. Greene
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 153201 – Published 9 October 2009

Abstract

Formulas for the cross section and event rate constant describing recombination of N particles are derived in terms of general S-matrix elements. Our result immediately yields the generalized Wigner threshold scaling for the recombination of N bosons. A semianalytical formula encapsulates the overall scaling with energy and scattering length, as well as resonant modifications by the presence of N-body states near the threshold collision energy in the entrance channel. We then apply our model to the case of four-boson recombination into an Efimov trimer and a free atom.

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  • Received 24 April 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.153201

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

N. P. Mehta1,2,*, Seth T. Rittenhouse1,†,‡, J. P. D’Incao1,3,§, J. von Stecher1,∥, and Chris H. Greene1,¶

  • 1Department of Physics and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
  • 2Grinnell College, Department of Physics, Grinnell, Iowa 50112, USA
  • 3Institut für Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

  • *mehtan@jilau1.colorado.edu
  • rittenhouse@colorado.edu
  • Present address: ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
  • §jpdincao@jila.colorado.edu
  • Javier.Vonstecher@colorado.edu
  • chris.greene@colorado.edu

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 15 — 9 October 2009

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