Resonances in ultracold dipolar atomic and molecular gases

TL;DR

This paper extends a numerical method to include anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions in ultracold confined particles, revealing diverse resonance phenomena influenced by confinement shape and interaction strength.

Contribution

It introduces an extended numerical approach to study anisotropic dipolar interactions in confined ultracold particles, highlighting resonance behaviors in different trapping potentials.

Findings

Resonances vary with dipole interaction strength.

Anharmonic traps induce inelastic confinement-induced resonances.

Resonance phenomena resemble s-wave scattering in harmonic traps.

Abstract

A previously developed approach for the numerical treatment of two particles that are confined in a finite optical-lattice potential and interact via an arbitrary isotropic interaction potential has been extended to incorporate an additional anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction. The interplay of a model but realistic short-range Born-Oppenheimer potential and the dipole-dipole interaction for two confined particles is investigated. A variation of the strength of the dipole-dipole interaction leads to diverse resonance phenomena. In a harmonic confinement potential some resonances show similarities to $s$-wave scattering resonances while in an anharmonic trapping potential like the one of an optical lattice inelastic confinement-induced dipolar resonances occur. The latter are due to a coupling of the relative and center-of-mass motion caused by the anharmonicity of the external confinement.