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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Three-body recombination of helium atoms at cold collision energies

Hiroya Suno

Published Mar 19, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Three-body recombination (TBR) of helium atoms at cold collision energies is studied using the hyperspherical adiabatic method with different realistic interaction potentials. By considering zero angular momentum J = 0 states as well as J > 0 states, we calculate the 4He TBR rates up to about 0.1 Kelvin, and analyze the influence of modern potentials on the recombination rates. We also calculate and analyze the collision induced dissociation rates.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/adc2be

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The Journal of Chemical Physics•Mar 1, 2019•12 citations
Abstract Three-body recombination (TBR) of helium atoms at cold collision energies is studied using the hyperspherical adiabatic method with different realistic interaction potentials. By considering zero angular momentum J = 0 states as well as J > 0 states, we calculate the 4He TBR rates up to about 0.1 Kelvin, and analyze the influence of modern potentials on the recombination rates. We also calculate and analyze the collision induced dissociation rates.
We have developed a method for calculating the rates for three-body recombination of cold atoms. This method allows us to treat not only zero total angular momentum, J=0,J=0,J=0, states but also J>0J>0J>0 states, so that recombinations at nonzero collision energies can be considered. Our method is applied to ground-state helium atoms 4He,{}^{4}\mathrm{He},4He, using a realistic interaction potential. In addition, we obtain the rates for collision induced dissociation.
The atom-atom-anion three-body recombination (TBR) and collision induced dissociation (CID) processes of the 3He–3He–T− system at ultracold temperatures are investigated by solving the Schrödinger equation in the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. The variations of the TBR and CID rates with the collision energies in the ultracold temperatures are obtained. It is found that the JΠ = 1− symmetry dominates the TBR and CID processes in most of the considered collision energy range. The rate of TBR (CID) into (from) the l = 1 anion is larger than those for the l = 0 and l = 2 anions, with the l representing the rotational quantum number of 3HeT−. This can be understood via the nonadiabatic couplings among the different channels.
The increase of the number of the two-body recombination channels strongly challenges the numerical calculation of the accurate rates for the three-body recombination (TBR) process and its reverse process, collision-induced dissociation (CID), at ultracold temperatures. By taking the 4He–4He–20Ne collision system as an example, we have obtained the rates for its TBR and CID processes involving all four recombination channels, including the two-body states 4He2 (l = 0) and 4He20Ne (l = 0, 1, 2) with l the rotational quantum number. By using the adiabatic hyperspherical method, we have considered not only total angular momentum J = 0 but also J > 0 in the ultracold collision energies (E = 0.01 − 100 mK × kB). It is found that 4He2 (l = 0) is the major product after the TBR process in the ultracold limit (E ≤ 0.1 mK × kB). The TBR rate into 4He2 (l = 0) is nearly one order of magnitude larger than the sum of the other three products, 4He20Ne (l = 0, 1, 2). Moreover, the CID rates for the three 4He20Ne (l = 0, 1, 2) + 4He initial states are close to each other and are smaller than that for the 4He2 (l = 0) + 20Ne initial state. Additionally, we have, for the first time, performed the channel-resolved scattering calculation that can explain the above-mentioned findings quantitatively.
Three-body recombination in helium-helium--alkali-metal collisions at cold temperatures is studied using the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. The rates for the three-body recombination processes $^{4}\text{H}\text{e}+^{4}\text{H}\text{e}+X\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\text{H}\text{e}+^{4}\text{H}\text{e}X$ and $^{4}\text{H}\text{e}+^{4}\text{H}\text{e}+X\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{^{4}\text{H}\text{e}}_{2}+X$, with X=7LiX=^{7}\text{L}\text{i}X=7Li, 23Na^{23}\text{N}\text{a}23Na, 39K^{39}\text{K}39K, 85Rb^{85}\text{R}\text{b}85Rb, and 133Cs^{133}\text{C}\text{s}133Cs, are calculated at nonzero collision energies by including not only zero total angular momentum, J=0J=0J=0, states but also J>0J>0J>0 states. The three-body recombination rates show a relatively weak dependence on the alkali-metal species, differing from each other only by about one order of magnitude, except for the 4He-4He-23Na^{4}\text{H}\text{e-}^{4}\text{H}\text{e-}^{23}\text{N}\text{a}4He-4He-23Na system.
We study three-body recombination in the helium-helium-silver system at cold collision energies. The three-body Schr\"odinger equation is solved combining the slow variable discretization and adiabatic approaches with the RRR-matrix propagation method, in order to calculate the product-state-selective total and partial recombination rates in the 4He+4He+^{4}\mathrm{He}+^{4}\mathrm{He} +4He+4He+ Ag system. Recombination at collision energies less than 10 mK is found to take place dominantly to the product molecule 4HeAg^{4}\mathrm{He}\mathrm{Ag}4HeAg in its least bound state, while the three atoms recombine mainly to the 4He2^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}4He2​ molecule in its ground state at higher collision energies.
Atom-atom-anion three-body recombination (TBR) in mixed 4He and xLi− (x = 6 or 7) is investigated in the adiabatic hyperspherical representation by quantum mechanically solving the Schrödinger equation. The distributions of product states following these TBR processes are found to be relatively different for the two systems when the collision energy is less than roughly 0.6 mK × kB or 0.3 mK × kB for 4He4He6Li− and 4He4He7Li− systems, respectively, with kB being the Boltzmann constant. For 4He4He6Li− systems, the rate of recombination into (v=0) l = 04He6Li− molecular anions is the largest with v and l denoting the rovibrational quantum numbers, while the TBR rate that leads to the formation of l = 14He6Li− molecular anions is a little smaller than that of neutral 4He2 molecules. For 4He4He7Li− systems, neutral 4He2 molecules tend to be the most products, following the yields of l = 0 and 1 4He7Li− molecular anions. However, in spite of these distinctly different distributions, the products of molecular anions, the sum of l = 0 and 1 4HexLi− products, are relatively larger than that of neutral 4He2 molecules for both the two systems.