Quantum Zeno suppression of three-body losses in Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We study the possibility of suppressing three-body losses in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates via the quantum Zeno effect, which means the delay of quantum evolution by frequent measurements. It turns out that this requires very fast measurements with the rate being determined by the spatial structure of the three-body form factor, i.e., the point interaction approximation $\delta^3(\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{r'})$ is not adequate. Since the molecular binding energy $E_b$ provides a natural limit for the measurement rate, this suppression mechanism can only work if the form factor possesses certain special properties.