Quantum simulation of a triatomic chemical reaction with ultracold atoms on a waveguide

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how ultracold atoms in waveguides can simulate quantum triatomic chemical reactions, enabling insights into molecular dynamics and potential applications in atom optics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to simulate three-body chemical reactions using ultracold atoms, bridging molecular physics and cold atom technology.

Findings

Parameters for F+HH to H+HF reaction with lithium are experimentally accessible.

Provides a tool for inverse scattering to determine unknown potentials.

Enables transfer of molecular reaction dynamics to cold atom beam splitter design.

Abstract

We study the scaling and coordinate transformation to physically simulate quantum three-body collinear chemical reactions of the type A+BC $\rightarrow$ AB+C by the motion of single ultracold atoms or a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate on an $L$-shaped waveguide. As an example we show that the parameters to model the reaction F+HH $\to$ H+HF with lithium are at reach with current technology. This mapping provides also an inverse scattering tool to find an unknown potential, and a way to transfer the knowledge on molecular reaction dynamics to design beam splitters for cold atoms with control of the channel outcome and vibrational excitation.