dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaThe No-sticking Effect in Ultra-cold Collisions
| Authors | Areez Mody, Michael Haggerty, Eric J. Heller |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0010068 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0010068 |
Abstract
We provide the theoretical basis for understanding the phenomenon in which an ultra cold atom incident on a possibly warm target will not stick, even in the large $n$ limit where $n$ is the number of internal degrees of freedom of the target. Our treatment is non-perturbative in which the full many-body problem is viewed as a scattering event purely within the context of scattering theory. The question of sticking is then simply and naturally identified with the formation of a long lived resonance. One crucial physical insight that emerges is that the many internal degrees of freedom serve to decohere the incident one body wavefunction, thus upsetting the delicate interference process necessary to form a resonance in the first place. This is the physical reason for not sticking.
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"abstract": "We provide the theoretical basis for understanding the phenomenon in which an\nultra cold atom incident on a possibly warm target will not stick, even in the\nlarge $n$ limit where $n$ is the number of internal degrees of freedom of the\ntarget. Our treatment is non-perturbative in which the full many-body problem\nis viewed as a scattering event purely within the context of scattering theory.\nThe question of sticking is then simply and naturally identified with the\nformation of a long lived resonance. One crucial physical insight that emerges\nis that the many internal degrees of freedom serve to decohere the incident one\nbody wavefunction, thus upsetting the delicate interference process necessary\nto form a resonance in the first place. This is the physical reason for not\nsticking.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0010068",
"authors": [
"Areez Mody",
"Michael Haggerty",
"Eric J. Heller"
],
"categories": [
"physics.atom-ph"
],
"title": "The No-sticking Effect in Ultra-cold Collisions",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0010068"
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