Dispersion interactions and reactive collisions of ultracold polar molecules

TL;DR

This paper provides ab initio calculations of van der Waals interactions for ultracold polar molecules and develops a scattering model revealing resonant reaction rates influenced by dipole coupling and short-range parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive ab initio approach to characterize interactions and reactive scattering of ultracold polar molecules, highlighting the importance of anisotropic potentials and partial wave dependence.

Findings

Reaction rates exhibit resonant behavior as a function of short-range parameters.

Dipole coupling significantly affects van der Waals coefficients.

Experimental reaction rates cannot be explained by models with wave-independent short-range parameters.

Abstract

Progress in ultracold experiments with polar molecules requires a clear understanding of their interactions and reactivity at ultra-low collisional energies. Two important theoretical steps in this process are the characterization of interaction potentials between molecules and the modeling of reactive scattering mechanism. Here, we report on the {\it abinitio} calculation of isotropic and anisotropic van der Waals interaction potentials for polar KRb and RbCs colliding with each other or with ultracold atoms. Based on these potentials and two short-range scattering parameters we then develop a single-channel scattering model with flexible boundary conditions. Our calculations show that at low temperatures (and in absence of an external electric field) the reaction rates between molecules or molecules with atoms have a resonant character as a function of the short-range parameters. We also find that both the isotropic and anisotropic van der Waals coefficients have significant contributions from dipole coupling to excited electronic states. Their values can differ dramatically from those solely obtained from the permanent dipole moment. A comparison with recently obtained reaction rates of fermionic $^{40}$K$^{87}$Rb shows that the experimental data can not be explained by a model where the short-range scattering parameters are independent of the relative orbital angular momentum or partial wave.