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Ultracold atomic collisions in tight harmonic traps: Perturbation theory, ionization losses and application to metastable helium atoms

T J Beams, G Peach, I B Whittingham

physics.atom-pharXiv:physics/0408125

Abstract

Collisions between tightly confined atoms can lead to ionization and hence to loss of atoms from the trap. We develop second-order perturbation theory for a tensorial perturbation of a spherically symmetric system and the theory is then applied to processes mediated by the spin-dipole interaction. Redistribution and loss mechanisms are studied for the case of spin-polarized metastable helium atoms and results obtained for the five lowest s states in the trap and trapping frequencies ranging from 1 kHz to 10 MHz.

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