Rydberg atom formation in strongly correlated ultracold plasmas

TL;DR

This paper investigates electron-ion recombination in ultracold plasmas, revealing deviations from classical laws at low temperatures and addressing the divergence issue as the plasma becomes strongly coupled.

Contribution

It provides a combined molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo analysis of recombination rates across a wide temperature range, resolving the divergence problem at ultracold temperatures.

Findings

Reproduces known high-temperature recombination behavior

Identifies deviations at low temperatures

Addresses divergence in recombination rate as plasma becomes strongly coupled

Abstract

In plasmas at very low temperatures formation of neutral atoms is dominated by collisional three-body recombination, owing to the strong ~ T^(-9/2) scaling of the corresponding recombination rate with the electron temperature T. While this law is well established at high temperatures, the unphysical divergence as T -> 0 clearly suggest a breakdown in the low-temperature regime. Here, we present a combined molecular dynamics-Monte-Carlo study of electron-ion recombination over a wide range of temperatures and densities. Our results reproduce the known behavior of the recombination rate at high temperatures, but reveal significant deviations with decreasing temperature. We discuss the fate of the kinetic bottleneck and resolve the divergence-problem as the plasma enters the ultracold, strongly coupled domain.