The Efimov effect for heteronuclear three-body systems at positive scattering length and finite temperature

Abstract

We study the recombination process of three atoms scattering into an atom and diatomic molecule in heteronuclear mixtures of ultracold atomic gases with large and positive interspecies scattering length at finite temperature. We calculate the temperature dependence of the three-body recombination rates by extracting universal scaling functions that parametrize the energy dependence of the scattering matrix. We compare our results to experimental data for the 40K-87Rb mixture and make a prediction for 6Li-87Rb. We find that contributions from higher partial wave channels significantly impact the total rate and, in systems with particularly large mass imbalance, can even obliterate the recombination minima associated with the Efimov effect.