Few-body ultracold reactions in a Bose-Fermi mixture

TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed few-body quantum mechanical analysis of ultracold Bose-Fermi mixtures near Fano-Feshbach resonances, elucidating molecule formation dynamics and comparing theoretical predictions with experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive few-body solution for ultracold reactions in Bose-Fermi mixtures, including time evolution and resonance effects, using a correlated-Gaussian basis.

Findings

Calculated spectrum shows avoided crossings enabling Landau-Zener interpretation.

Predicted molecule formation rates align with experimental data.

Provides insights into the dynamics of ultracold atom-molecule conversion.

Abstract

The spectrum of two bosons and two fermions in a trap is calculated using a correlated-Gaussian basis throughout the range of a broad Fano-Feshbach resonance. The calculations provide a few-body solution to the magneto-association of fermionic Feshbach molecules. This solution is used to study the time evolution of the system as the scattering length changes, mimicking experiments with Bose-Fermi mixtures near Fano-Feshbach resonances. The structure of avoided crossings in the few-body spectrum enables an interpretation of the dynamics of the system as a sequence of Landau-Zener transitions. The calculated molecule formation rate is compared with experimental observations.