Atom loss from Bose-Einstein condensates due to Feshbach resonance

TL;DR

This paper explains atom loss in Bose-Einstein condensates near Feshbach resonances by proposing a mechanism involving molecular state deactivation through three-body interactions, supported by recent experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical model for atom loss in BECs near Feshbach resonances, emphasizing three-body molecular deactivation processes.

Findings

The model accounts for large atom loss rates observed experimentally.

Deactivation of molecular states explains the resonance-induced losses.

Supports the importance of three-body interactions in BEC dynamics.

Abstract

In recent experiments on Na Bose-Einstein condensates [S. Inouye et al, Nature 392, 151 (1998); J. Stenger et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2422 (1999)], large loss rates were observed when a time-varying magnetic field was used to tune a molecular Feshbach resonance state near the state of pairs of atoms belonging to the condensate many-body wavefunction. A mechanism is offered here to account for the observed losses, based on the deactivation of the resonant molecular state by interaction with a third condensate atom.