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Reactions of ultracold alkali metal dimers

Atomic Physics 2010-06-17 v2

Abstract

We investigate the energetics of reactions involving pairs of alkali metal dimers. Atom exchange reactions to form homonuclear dimers are energetically allowed for some but not all of the heteronuclear dimers. We carry out high-level electronic structure calculations on the potential energy surfaces of all the heteronuclear alkali metal trimers and show that trimer formation reactions are always energetically forbidden for low-lying singlet states of the dimers. The results have important implications for the stability of quantum gases of alkali metal dimers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1003.1418,
  title  = {Reactions of ultracold alkali metal dimers},
  author = {Piotr S. Zuchowski and Jeremy M. Hutson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1003.1418},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Version responding to referees comments, with updated references and numerical changes in Table 3, but conclusions unchanged