This work investigates how the closed channel of a Feshbach resonance is characterised by experimental observables. Surprisingly, it is found that the two-body observables associated with the Feshbach resonance can be insensitive to the properties of the closed channel. In particular, it is impossible in this situation to determine the energy of the bound state causing the resonance from the usual experimental data. This is the case for all magnetic Feshbach resonances in ultracold atoms, due to their deep two-body interaction potentials. This insensitivity highlights a major difference with Feshbach resonances that involve shallow interaction potentials, such as hadron resonances. It appears however that short-range two-body correlations and three-body observables are affected by a parameter of the closed channel called the “closed-channel scattering length”. A photoassociation experiment is proposed to measure this parameter in ultracold atom systems.
This work investigates how the closed channel of a Feshbach resonance is characterised by experimental observables. Surprisingly, it is found that the two-body observables associated with the Feshbach resonance can be insensitive to the properties of the closed channel. In particular, it is impossible in this situation to determine the energy of the bound state causing the resonance from the usual experimental data. This is the case for all magnetic Feshbach resonances in ultracold atoms, due to their deep two-body interaction potentials. This insensitivity highlights a major difference with Feshbach resonances that involve shallow interaction potentials, such as hadron resonances. It appears however that short-range two-body correlations and three-body observables are affected by a parameter of the closed channel called the “closed-channel scattering length”. A photoassociation experiment is proposed to measure this parameter in ultracold atom systems.
By applying a magnetic field across a trapped ultracold gas of alkali metal atoms, it is possible to alter the binding energies of near threshold molecular states. The proximity of molecular states to the scattering threshold has a strong effect on the threshold scattering characteristics. Because of this the magnetic field strength can be used to control low energy scattering within the gas. This resonant phenomena is referred to as a magnetically tuneable Feshbach resonance. This thesis looks at these and related phenomena in the context of trapped potassium atoms. First, we perform coupled-channels calculations in order to characterise a group of previously unreported Feshbach resonances, occurring in a host of different collision channels. Next, we compare these characterisations to empirical data, and more simplified models. Second, a detailed investigation into the photodissociation of weakly bound Feshbach molecules is carried out. This allows us to gain new insights into the structure of the exit channel interaction. We make semi-classical arguments which enable experimentalists to directly measure the height of potential barriers. We also perform detailed numerical calculations which, in conjunction with experimental data, allow us to develop a fine-tuned potential model for the exit state. Third, we model weakly bound triatomic states and their impact on near threshold scattering. Then, we discuss the use of three body recombination as a tool for observing Efimov states. Furthermore, we model the three body recombination rate using a simplified two channel model. Finally we suggest a method intended to provide the basis for numerical calculations using realistic Born-Oppenheimer potentials. It could also be used to analytically study near threshold three body physics.
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.
1. Highlight “short-ranged,” “dilute,” and “low-energy” as three main features of interactions between ultracold atoms. 2. Introduce the important concept of the phase shift. 3. Introduce the s-wave scattering length as a universal parameter describing the low-energy interaction between ultracold atoms. 4. Discuss the relation between divergent scattering length, low-energy bound state, and jump of phase shift. 5. Discuss the relation between the scattering length and the scattering amplitude. 6. Discuss under what condition a positive scattering length describes repulsive interaction. 7. Discuss the condition when an algebraically decayed potential can be treated as a finite range one. 8. Introduce two types of zero-range single-channel potentials to capture the universal low-energy s-wave interaction between ultracold atoms. 9. Introduce the concept of renormalization condition and renormalizable theory. 10. Discuss how the spin rotational symmetry imposes constraints on interaction form for both alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms. 11. Introduce Feshbach resonance as an important tool to tune scattering length. 12. Compare the two-channel Feshbach resonance with the single-channel shape resonance and compare the wide and the narrow resonances. 13. Introduce a zero-range two-channel model. 14. Introduce the confinement-induced resonance to tune interaction strength by an external potential. 15. Summarize three key conditions for a Feshbach resonance, and unify the optical Feshbach resonance, the orbital Feshbach resonance, and the confinement-induced resonance all in terms of these three conditions. 16. Introduce the Efimov effect as an important three-body effect at the vicinity of the two-body scattering resonance. 17. Highlight the symmetry aspect of the Efimov effect. 18. Discuss various connections between few-body and many-body physics. 19. Illustrate that few-body calculation can be used to determine properties of many-body systems by using high-temperature expansion as an example.
We revisit the basic properties of Fano-Feshbach resonances in two-body systems with van der Waals tail interactions, such as ultracold neutral atoms. Using a two-channel model and two different methods, we investigate the relationship between the width and shift of the resonances and their dependence on the low-energy parameters of the system. Unlike what was previously believed [C. Chin et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1225 (2010)] for magnetic resonances, we find that the ratio between the width and the shift of a resonance does not depend only on the background scattering length, but also on a closed-channel scattering length. We obtain different limits corresponding to different cases of optical and magnetic resonances. Although the generalization of the theory to the multichannel case remains to be done, we found that our two-channel predictions are verified for a specific resonance of lithium-6.
Ultracold atomic gas experiments have proven to be a versatile ground for studying quantum mechanics, quantum many-body physics, quantum simulation and computation. A precise model for two-body collisions in those systems is essential. Coupled-channels models can accurately describe the two-atom system at ultracold temperatures by detailed interaction potentials that are finetuned by just a few parameters, determined from experiment. We extend such a coupled-channels model to include the situation in a Mott insulator phase of ultracold bosonic atoms, where two atoms are confined to one lattice site. Of particular importance is the specific conversion between the on-site interaction energy, which remains finite in the lattice, and the scattering length around a Feshbach resonance that diverges. Recently spectroscopic techniques allowed for a precise experimental determination of the on-site interaction energy in a system of 7Li atoms, we analyze this data with our model to improve the precision of current lithium interaction potentials.
We provide an exact solution of the Efimov spectrum in ultracold gases within the standard two-channel model for Feshbach resonances. It is shown that the finite range in the Feshbach coupling makes the introduction of an adjustable three-body parameter obsolete. The solution explains the empirical relation between the scattering length a − where the first Efimov state appears at the atom threshold and the van der Waals length l vdw for open-channel dominated resonances. There is a continuous crossover to the closed-channel dominated limit, where the scale in the energy level diagram as a function of the inverse scattering length 1 / a is set by the intrinsic length r ⋆ associated with the Feshbach coupling. Our results provide a number of predictions for the deviations from universal scaling relations between energies and scattering lengths that can be tested in future experiments.