Quasiclassical method for calculating the density of states of ultracold collision complexes

Arthur Christianen, Tijs Karman, and Gerrit C. Groenenboom
Phys. Rev. A 100, 032708 – Published 17 September 2019

Abstract

We derive a quasiclassical expression for the density of states (DOS) of an arbitrary, ultracold, N-atom collision complex, for a general potential energy surface (PES). We establish the accuracy of our quasiclassical method by comparing to exact quantum results for the K2Rb and NaK-NaK systems, with isotropic model PESs. Next, we calculate the DOS for an accurate NaK-NaK PES to be 0.124 μK1, with an associated Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus sticking time of 6.0 μs. We extrapolate the DOS and sticking times to all other polar bialkali-bialkali collision complexes by scaling with atomic masses, equilibrium bond lengths, dissociation energies, and dispersion coefficients. The sticking times calculated here are two to three orders of magnitude shorter than those reported by Mayle et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85, 062712 (2012)]. We estimate dispersion coefficients and collision rates between molecules and complexes. We find that the sticking-amplified three-body loss mechanism is not likely the cause of the losses observed in the experiments.

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  • Received 13 June 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.032708

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Arthur Christianen1, Tijs Karman2, and Gerrit C. Groenenboom1,*

  • 1Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Heijendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  • 2ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

  • *gerritg@theochem.ru.nl

See Also

Photoinduced Two-Body Loss of Ultracold Molecules

Arthur Christianen, Martin W. Zwierlein, Gerrit C. Groenenboom, and Tijs Karman
Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 123402 (2019)

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Vol. 100, Iss. 3 — September 2019

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