Anisotropic collisions of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates in the universal regime

TL;DR

This paper investigates anisotropic collisions between dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing a new quantum scattering regime with complex angular momentum coupling, supported by experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It introduces the observation of a novel dipolar collision regime with large angular momentum coupling, supported by experimental measurements and theoretical simulations.

Findings

Observation of a halo indicating two-body differential scattering cross section

Demonstration of a new quantum scattering regime with angular momentum coupling

Agreement between Monte Carlo simulations and experimental results

Abstract

We report the measurement of collisions between two Bose-Einstein condensates with strong dipolar interactions. The collision velocity is significantly larger than the internal velocity distribution widths of the individual condensates, and thus, with the condensates being sufficiently dilute, a halo corresponding to the two-body differential scattering cross section is observed. The results demonstrate a novel regime of quantum scattering, relevant to dipolar interactions, in which a large number of angular momentum states become coupled during the collision. We perform Monte-Carlo simulations to provide a detailed comparison between theoretical two-body cross sections and the experimental observations.