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.
Resonances manifest as the sharp peaks observed in graphs of scattering cross section versus energy. Resonances in binary collisions are closely related to twobody bound or quasi-bound states, which are the discrete quantum states whose amplitudes fall off (usually exponentially) in space as the separation r → ∞. In the case of a single channel, a bound state is formed at a specific negative energy; that is, below the channel threshold. In the multichannel case, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, a bound state occurs when all the channels are closed; that is, below the threshold of the lowest channel. Under specific circumstances, a bound state may occur at zero energy; that is, right at the lowest threshold. Quasi-bound states are also discrete quantum states that are formed temporarily at a discrete positive energy (above the lowest threshold). Both resonant and bound states (including quasibound ones) can be described by a unified approach to cold collisions. The temporary binding of a quasi-bound state at a discrete energy enhances the scattering cross section at that energy. This occurs because the quasi-bound state eventually decays into the continuum of scattering states whose central energy equals the binding energy. The resonance width is determined by the coupling between the bound and continuum states.
The Ettore Majorana paper "Theory of incomplete P' triplets", published in 1931, focuses on the role of selection rules for the non-radiative decay of two electron excitations in atomic spectra, involving the configuration interaction between discrete and continuum channels.This work is a key step for understanding the 1935 work of Ugo Fano on the asymmetric lineshape of two electron excitations and the 1958 Herman Feshbach paper on the shape resonances in nuclear scattering arising from configuration interaction between many different scattering channels.The Feshbach resonances and shape resonances are today of high scientific interest in many different fields and in particular for ultracold gases and high T c superconductivity.
A new facet was added to the study of dilute gases by the production and subsequent Bose–Einstein condensation of diatomic molecules from a gas of fermionic atoms. Feshbach resonances which, as we have seen in Sec. 5.4, make it possible to tune the atom–atom interaction, play a crucial role in the experiments. At the magnetic field strength for which the binding energy of the molecule vanishes, the inverse of the scattering length, which determines the low-energy effective interaction between atoms, passes through zero. In the experiments to produce molecules, one starts with a mixture of two species of fermion, most commonly different hyperfine states of the same isotope, in a magnetic field of such a strength that the molecular state has an energy higher than that of two zero-momentum atoms in the open channel. The magnetic field is then altered to a value at which the molecular state is bound with respect to two atoms in the open channel, and in this process, many of the atoms combine to form molecules. These molecules have binding energies in the 10 −9 eV range, and are thus extremely weakly bound by the standards of conventional molecular physics. In addition, they are very extended, with atomic separations as large as one micron. These molecules, being bosons, can undergo Bose–Einstein condensation, just as bosonic atoms do.
The presence of shape resonances due to tunneling through the centrifugal barrier modifies strongly the dynamics of cold atom scattering. As shown on the example of the ground and lowest triplet electronic states of the 85Rb133Cs molecule, the crucial parameter is, as usual for cold collisions, the scattering length. A general description of shape resonances of diatomic molecules is given from three simple single channel asymptotic models, whose respective performances are discussed. The first model, which consists of a ${R}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ potential limited at short range by a repulsive wall, positioned to reproduce the s-wave scattering length, accounts satisfactorily for the main system-independent properties of shape resonances. Introduction in the model of energy- and angular-momentum-dependent nodal lines specific to the inner part of the potential greatly improves its efficiency. When the energy and angular momentum dependence of the nodal lines cannot be deduced from full potential calculations or from experiment, a rough, but universal, estimate of these properties is obtained by extending the ${R}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ behavior of the potential up to the origin.