Magnetic Moments of Lanthanide van der Waals Dimers

Abstract

Loosely bound van der Waals dimers of lanthanide atoms, as might be obtained in ultracold atom experiments, are investigated. These molecules are known to exhibit a degree of quantum chaos, due to the strong anisotropic mixing of their angular spin and rotation degrees of freedom. Within a model of these molecules, we identify different realms of this anisotropic mixing, depending on whether the spin, the rotation, or both, are significantly mixed by the anisotropy. These realms are in turn generally correlated with the resulting magnetic moments of the states.