Multipolar exchange in a many-body homonuclear mixture of atoms in different internal states

Abstract

We develop a general method for constructing the many-body Hamiltonian of pairwise interactions describing homonuclear mixtures of atoms occupying states with different total angular momenta or other quantum numbers. The advantage of the irreducible spherical tensor operator formalism is demonstrated: these operators give the Hamiltonian an explicit physical structure, account for all scattering channels, and include multipolar exchange interactions. The latter correspond to the exchange of both angular-momentum projections and the total angular momentum. Particular realizations of the general Hamiltonian, widely used in the physics of ultracold gases, are also analyzed. The resulting Hamiltonian provides a universal framework for investigating a broad range of quantum many-body phenomena in bosonic and fermionic atomic gases.