Polyatomic trilobite Rydberg molecules in a dense random gas
Atomic Physics
2017-11-22 v2
Abstract
Trilobites are exotic giant dimers with enormous dipole moments. They consist of a Rydberg atom and a distant ground-state atom bound together by short-range electron-neutral attraction. We show that highly polar, polyatomic trilobite states unexpectedly persist and thrive in a dense ultracold gas of randomly positioned atoms. This is caused by perturbation-induced quantum scarring and the localization of electron density on randomly occurring atom clusters. At certain densities these states also mix with a s-state, overcoming selection rules that hinder the photoassociation of ordinary trilobites.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1708.03503,
title = {Polyatomic trilobite Rydberg molecules in a dense random gas},
author = {Perttu J. J. Luukko and Jan-Michael Rost},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.03503},
year = {2017}
}