Five-body recombination of identical bosons
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This work treats resonant collisions between five identical ultracold bosons in the framework of the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. The five-body recombination rate coefficient is quantified using a semiclassical description in conjunction with an analysis of the lowest five-body hyperspherical adiabatic potential curves in a scattering length regime with no universal weakly bound tetramers, trimers, or dimers. A comparison is made between these results and the only existing experimental measurement of five-body loss in an ultracold gas of bosonic cesium atoms and with the lone theoretical estimation of the loss rate. The recombination rate for the process B + B + B + B + B → B 4 + B is also computed in a different regime of scattering lengths where there is one universal bound tetramer by implementing a few-channel quantum scattering calculation based on five-body hyperspherical potential curves and nonadiabatic couplings. Our calculations predict regions where five-body recombination can cause decay of the atom cloud in an ultracold gas that is even faster than 3-body and 4-body recombination, which can ideally be tested by using the current generation of box traps having nearly uniform density.
Authors: Michael D. Higgins, Chris H. Greene
Institution: Purdue University West Lafayette
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W4409795605