The interaction between atoms behaves as $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}{/r}^{n}$ at large distances and, owing to the large reduced mass \ensuremath{\mu} of the collision pair, allows a semiclassical treatment within the potential well. As a result, the low-energy scattering is governed by two large parameters: the asymptotic parameter $\ensuremath{\gamma}=\sqrt{2\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\alpha}}/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\gg}{a}_{0}^{(n\ensuremath{-}2)/2}$ (
a0 is the Bohr radius) and the semiclassical zero-energy phase $\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\gg}1.$ In our previous work [Phys. Rev. A 48, 546 (1993)] we obtained an analytical expression for the scattering length
a, which showed that it has 75% preference for positive values for
n=6, characteristic of collisions between ground-state neutral atoms. In this paper we calculate the effective range and show that it is a function of
a, ${r}_{e}{=F}_{n}\ensuremath{-}{G}_{n}{/a+H}_{n}{/a}^{2},$ where
Fn, Gn, and
Hn depend only on \ensuremath{\gamma}. Thus, we know the
s-phase shift at low momenta $k\ensuremath{\ll}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{-}2/(n\ensuremath{-}2)}$ from the expansion $k\mathrm{cot}{\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}1/a+\frac{1}{2}{r}_{e}{k}^{2}.$ At $k\ensuremath{\gg}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{-}2/(n\ensuremath{-}2)}$ the phase shift is obtained semiclassically as ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}=\ensuremath{\Phi}+\ensuremath{\pi}/4\ensuremath{-}{I}_{n}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{2/n}{k}^{(n\ensuremath{-}2)/n},$ where ${I}_{n}=[n/(n\ensuremath{-}2)]\ensuremath{\Gamma}((n\ensuremath{-}1)/n)\ensuremath{\Gamma}((n+2)/2n)/\sqrt{\ensuremath{\pi}}.$ Therefore, \ensuremath{\gamma} and \ensuremath{\Phi} determine the
s-wave atomic scattering in a wide range of momenta, as well as the positions of upper bound states of the diatomic molecule.
A formalism, previously presented, for describing atom-atom scattering in the adiabatic representation to higher orders in
Mm is generalized to describe the problem of different isotopes and different atoms. This is accomplished by a sequence of nonlinear coordinate transformations which introduce a "switching function" which is defined only in the asymptotic limit of separated atoms. It is found that the effective potential for elastic scattering contains energy-dependent terms in order
Mm and that it also depends upon the switching function in this order so that the potential is not unique. It is also found that in this order the definition of adiabatic states is not a trivial problem. A variational choice is made for the switching function and explicit calculations are presented for the He-He interaction. The coupled equations describing transitions are then derived and it is shown that terms are omitted from the usual coupling operator which are of the same order of magnitude as the one usually kept. This leads to a modification of the usual Landau-Zener transition formula.
Inspired by general relativity, we suggest an approach for long-range potential scattering. In scattering theory, there is a general theory for short-range potential scattering, but there is no general theory for long-range potential scattering. This is because the scattering boundary conditions for all short-range potentials are the same, but for different long-range potentials, they are different. In this paper, by introducing tortoise coordinates, we convert long-range potential scattering to short-range potential scattering. This allows us to deal with long-range potential scattering as short-range potential scattering. An explicit expression of the scattering wave function for long-range potential scattering is presented, in which the scattering wave function is represented by the tortoise coordinate and the scattering phase shift. We show that the long-range potential scattering wave function is just the short-range potential scattering wave function with a replacement of a common coordinate by a tortoise coordinate. The approach applies not only to scattering but also applies to bound states. Furthermore, in terms of tortoise coordinates, we suggest a classification scheme for potentials. We also discuss the duality between tortoise coordinates.
To clarify the relation of energy shifts to scattering phase shifts in one-body and many-body problems, we examine their relation in a number of different situations. We derive, for a particle in a container of arbitrary shape with a short-range scattering center, a general result for the energy eigenvalues in terms of the s-wave scattering phase shift and the eigenstates in the absence of the scatterer. We show that, while the energy shifts for a spherical container are proportional to the phase shift over large ranges, those for a cubic container have a more complicated behavior. We connect our result to the description of energy shifts in terms of the scattering T-matrix. The general relation is extended to problems of particles in traps with smoothly varying potentials, including, e.g., the interaction of a small neutral atom with a Rydberg atom. We then consider the many-body problem for particles with a two-body interaction and show that the free energy change due to the interaction is proportional to an average of a generalized phase shift that includes the effects of the medium. Finally, we discuss why, even though individual energy levels are very sensitive to boundary conditions, the energy of a many-body system is not.
A systematic treatment is presented of near-threshold electron-atom scattering based on a variational principle. Results obtained here extend the modified effective-range theory derived some time ago (in which long-range polarization forces are taken into account) by providing a prescription, based on a minimum principle, for calculating the effective-range parameters. With the aid of perturbation-theory methods introduced recently for obtaining asymptotic solutions of the wave equation for scattering by a superposition of long-range power-law potentials [see M. J. Cavagnero, Phys. Rev. A 50, 2841 (1994)], higher-order corrections to the modified effective-range expansion in powers of the polarizability parameters are readily obtained. Explicit examples are provided. The theory is developed for both single-channel and multichannel scattering.
We describe a method for evaluating analytical long-range contributions to scattering lengths for some potentials used in atomic physics. We assume that an interaction potential between colliding particles consists of two parts. The form of a short-range component, vanishing beyond some distance from the origin (a core radius), need not be given. Instead, we assume that a set of short-range scattering lengths due to that part of the interaction is known. A long-range tail of the potential is chosen to be an inverse power potential, a superposition of two inverse power potentials with suitably chosen exponents or the Lent potential. For these three classes of long-range interactions a radial Schrodinger equation at zero energy may be solved analytically with solutions expressed in terms of the Bessel, Whittaker and Legendre functions, respectively. We utilize this fact and derive exact analytical formulae for the scattering lengths. The expressions depend on the short-range scattering lengths, the core radius and parameters characterizing the long-range part of the interaction. Cases when the long-range potential (or its part) may be treated as a perturbation are also discussed and formulae for scattering lengths linear in strengths of the perturbing potentials are given. It is shown that for some combination of the orbital angular momentum quantum number and an exponent of the leading term of the potential the derived formulae, exact or approximate, take very simple forms and contain only polynomial and trigonometric functions. The expressions obtained in this paper are applicable to scattering of charged particles by neutral targets and to collisions between neutrals. The results are illustrated by accelerating convergence of scattering lengths computed for e - -Xe and Cs-Cs systems.