Boundaries of universality of thermal collisions for atom-atom scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates the limits of the universality of thermal collision rate coefficients in atom-atom scattering, using quantum calculations to identify how these rates depend on interaction potentials across different atomic species and temperatures.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the boundaries of universality in thermal collision rates, highlighting differences between light and heavy atoms and guiding future experimental applications.

Findings

Distributions of rate coefficients change characteristically between light and heavy atoms.

Boundaries of universality depend on temperature and atomic properties.

Diagrams illustrate the limits of universality for different atomic systems.

Abstract

Thermal rate coefficients for some atomic collisions have been observed to be remarkably independent of the details of interatomic interactions at short range. This makes these rate coefficients universal functions of the long-range interaction parameters and masses, which was previously exploited to develop a self-defining atomic sensor for ambient pressure. Here, we employ rigorous quantum scattering calculations to examine the response of thermally averaged rate coefficients for atom-atom collisions to changes in the interaction potentials. We perform a comprehensive analysis of the universality, and the boundaries thereof, by treating the quantum scattering observables as probabilistic predictions determined by a distribution of interaction potentials. We show that there is a characteristic change of the resulting distributions of rate coefficients, separating light, few-electron atoms and heavy, polarizable atoms. We produce diagrams that illustrate the boundaries of the thermal collision universality at different temperatures and provide guidance for future experiments seeking to exploit the universality.