Ultracold atoms are increasingly used for high-precision experiments that can be utilized to extract accurate scattering properties. This results in a stronger need to improve on the accuracy of interatomic potentials, and in particular the usually rather inaccurate inner-range potentials. A boundary condition for this short range can be conveniently given via the accumulated phase method. However, in this approach one should satisfy three conditions, two of which are in principle conflicting, and the validity of these approximations comes under stress when higher precision is required. We show that a better compromise between the two is possible by allowing for an adiabatic change in the hyperfine mixing of singlet and triplet states for interatomic distances smaller than the separation radius. Results we presented previously in a brief publication using this method show a high precision and extend the set of predicted quantities. The purpose of this paper is to describe its background. A mass-scaling approach to relate accumulated phase parameters in a combined analysis of isotopically related atom pairs is described in detail and its accuracy is estimated, taking into account both Born-Oppenheimer and Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin breakdown. We demonstrate how numbers of singlet and triplet bound states follow from the mass scaling.
Ultracold atoms are increasingly used for high-precision experiments that can be utilized to extract accurate scattering properties. This results in a stronger need to improve on the accuracy of interatomic potentials, and in particular the usually rather inaccurate inner-range potentials. A boundary condition for this short range can be conveniently given via the accumulated phase method. However, in this approach one should satisfy three conditions, two of which are in principle conflicting, and the validity of these approximations comes under stress when higher precision is required. We show that a better compromise between the two is possible by allowing for an adiabatic change in the hyperfine mixing of singlet and triplet states for interatomic distances smaller than the separation radius. Results we presented previously in a brief publication using this method show a high precision and extend the set of predicted quantities. The purpose of this paper is to describe its background. A mass-scaling approach to relate accumulated phase parameters in a combined analysis of isotopically related atom pairs is described in detail and its accuracy is estimated, taking into account both Born-Oppenheimer and Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin breakdown. We demonstrate how numbers of singlet and triplet bound states follow from the mass scaling.
The most accurate theoretical potentials available for the interaction of a pair of ground-state Rb atoms are used to evaluate their ultracold scattering properties. The close relation between the zero-energy scattering phase shifts and the number of bound states in the potential, by Levinson's theorem, is used to assign absolute values to the l = 0, 1 and 2 phase shifts. The number of bound states is compared with those resulting from detailed spectroscopic studies on the singlet potential and photoassociation results on the triplet potential. We review the scattering formulae needed to satisfy the Pauli principle for the fermion nuclei of 85Rb and 87Rb and their single unpaired electrons, for all possible initial hyperfine states. Scattering lengths are evaluated and their sensitivity to details of the asymptotic potentials is demonstrated.
Elastic scattering properties of singlet and triplet states of 7 Li 133 Cs at ultralow temperatures are calculated using the constructed potential curves gleaned from high-precision spectroscopy measurement. We show how to reach the scattering length and the number of bound states via the variable phase method. The scattering lengths of the singlet and triplet states of 7 Li 133 Cs are 50.5a.u. and — 135.7a.u., respectively. We derive two corrections, arising from long range interactions, accurately to at least first order, which provide upper and lower computed bounds to the scattering length. Our results are consistent with the recent experimental data and the theoretical calculation.
Based on the accurate singlet and triplet state interatomic potentials for Na2, a theoretical study of elastic scattering properties of sodium atoms at ultracold temperatures is reported in this paper. The s-wave scattering length, effective range, the p-wave scattering length and the number of bound states are calculated. The singlet and triplet elastic scattering cross section between sodium aotms at ultracold temperatures are dominated by s-wave scattering, and shape resonances occur with collision energy increasing. There exist pronounced f-wave and i-wave shape resonances for the singlet and triplet cross section. In addition, s-wave scattering length is calculated by using the degenerate internet state approximation for selected hyperfine states of sodium atoms. The results are in agreement with calculated values obtained by close-coupling method.
Scattering properties of ultracold atoms are sensitive to the interatomic potential. Based on the accurate triplet least-bound state energy, we calculate the triplet s-wave scattering length for 23 Na— 40 K. The scattering length is −814.1 +29 −31.3 a 0 with a 0 being the Bohr radius. By using the mass scaling method, those scattering lengths are also obtained for 23 Na— 41 K and 23 Na— 39 K. The degenerate internal state approximation is used to estimate the scattering data of atoms colliding in different spin states.
The susceptibility of ultracold gases to precise manipulation via external fields makes them ideal systems to study fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena. Various regimes, which are not possible to reach in condensed matter or nuclear physics, can be probed with these quantum gases. Especially the tunability of the interactions and confining potentials make that these ultracold gases offer unique possibilities to explore and study universal behavior. The tunability of the dominant two-body interactions in dilute ultracold atomic gases stems from the presence of Feshbach resonances. Via these resonances pairs of ultracold atoms can be associated to form ultracold molecules. In fact, measurements of Feshbach resonance positions can be used to reveal part of the underlying molecular structure. Vica versa, accurate molecular Born-Oppenheimer potentials can be used as input for full numerical coupled-channels calculations to reliably predict Feshbach resonances. For most of the heteronuclear mixtures currently studied however, the relevant molecular potentials are not accurate enough. As the coupled-channels method is often too elaborate and too time consuming to be used to fit the measured data to enable the construction of more accurate potentials, a need for accurate models which complement this established method is created. In this thesis we have developed a simplified model for resonant scattering of two ultracold atoms which fulfills this need. The asymptotic bound-state model (ABM) is a hierarchical model which can be systematically increased in complexity and accuracy. In its most simple form, the ABM only needs two parameters to predict the position and strength of Feshbach resonances: Two binding energies corresponding to the least bound state of the two molecular potentials involved. We demonstrate that this model, although it is solely based on bound states, can incorporate threshold effects. Additionally, the model can be extended to include: Multiple vibrational levels, overlapping resonances, and magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. This versatile model allows for a description of Feshbach resonances in a large variety of systems without accurate knowledge of the relevant molecular Born-Oppenheimer potentials. Being computationally light, the ABM can be used to analyze measurements of Feshbach resonances and hereby expose the basic underlying molecular structure. Additionally, the ABM is well suited to map out all available Feshbach resonances in a system. This ability is particularly useful when an optimal resonance is required for a certain experiment. For the 6Li-40K mixture we have utilized this ability to experimentally observe a strong Feshbach resonance which offers promising perspectives to reach the strongly interacting universal regime in a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas. By analyzing the various inelastic decay processes and the accuracy of the ab initio Born-Oppenheimer potentials, we predict a strong resonance in a mixture of metastable bosonic and fermionic helium atoms. For the homonuclear (bosonic as well as fermionic) helium gas we do not find strong resonances. For an ultracold gas of 40K atoms, an elaborate combined theoretical and experimental effort is presented to map out the Feshbach resonance structure. On the experimental side we observed 36 Feshbach resonances, 31 of which where observed for the first time. These observations are in excellent agreement with coupled-channels calculations which use unmodified Born-Oppenheimer potentials as input. On the theoretical side, we present a comparison between different simplified models of resonance scattering and the full numerical coupled-channels calculations. We have developed the resonant state model (RSM) to describe the resonant scattering of two ultracold atoms. This model is founded on resonant states, the natural (eigen) frequencies of the two-body system, and their non-trivial properties. Threshold effects are implicitly build into the RSM. The RSM can describe the effect of the continuum of scattering states, states which are neglected in the ABM, on the position and strength of a Feshbach resonance by only a few resonant states. Especially when a low-energy resonance is embedded in the continuum of scattering states, the effect of these states on the Feshbach resonance cannot be neglected. The RSM can be viewed as the natural generalization of the ABM. As the RSM can be based on just a few resonant states, it retains the computational simplicity of the ABM. Using the tunability of two-body interactions induced by a Feshbach resonance, we describe a crossover for a rotating Fermi gas between two strongly-correlated many-body states. We demonstrate that the correlation induced long-range interaction will shift the crossover with respect to the non-rotating case.
Since the first realizations of Bose-Einstein condensates in ultracold atomic gases in 1995, the 85Rb and 87Rb atomic species have acted as the workhorses of experimental developments in this field. Parallel to and partly preceding this work the same isotopes figured also as workhorses for successful theoretical attempts aiming at unravelling the needed information on interaction properties like scattering lengths and Feshbach resonances. The purpose of this contribution is to describe recent developments of this theoretical work, based on an adiabatic variant of the accumulated phase method, which gives rise to the most reliable and accurate predictions of interaction properties available to date for any alkali atomic gas. The method can be readily applied to predict interaction properties between two different atomic species, once a limited set of experimental data is available to determine the accumulated phases.