Magnetic field effects in ultracold molecular collisions

Abstract

We investigate the collisional stability of magnetically trapped ultracold molecules, taking into account the influence of magnetic fields. We compute elastic and spin-state-changing inelastic rate constants for collisions of the prototype molecule $^{17}$O$_2$ with a $^3$He buffer gas as a function of the magnetic field and the translational collision energy. We find that spin-state-changing collisions are suppressed by Wigner's threshold laws as long as the asymptotic Zeeman splitting between incident and final states does not exceed the height of the centrifugal barrier in the exit channel. In addition, we propose a useful one-parameter fitting formula that describes the threshold behavior of the inelastic rates as a function of the field and collision energy. Results show a semi-quantitative agreement of this formula with the full quantum calculations, and suggest useful applications also to different systems. As an example, we predict the low-energy rate constants relevant to evaporative cooling of molecular oxygen.