Ultracold atom-molecule collisions with fermionic atoms

Abstract

Elastic and inelastic properties of weakly bound s- and p-wave molecules of fermionic atoms that collide with a third atom are investigated. Analysis of calculated collisional properties of s-wave dimers of fermions in different spin states permit us to compare and highlight the physical mechanisms that determine the stability of s-wave and p-wave molecules. In contrast to s-wave molecules, the collisional properties of p-wave molecules are found to be largely insensitive to variations of the p-wave scattering length and that these collisions will usually result in short molecular lifetimes. We also discuss the importance of this result for both theories and experiments involving degenerate Fermi gases.