1 research outputs found
Theory of Feshbach molecule formation in a dilute gas during a magnetic field ramp
Starting with coupled atom-molecule Boltzmann equations, we develop a
simplified model to understand molecule formation observed in recent
experiments. Our theory predicts several key features: (1) the effective
adiabatic rate constant is proportional to density; (2) in an adiabatic ramp,
the dependence of molecular fraction on magnetic field resembles an error
function whose width and centroid are related to the temperature; (3) the
molecular production efficiency is a universal function of the initial phase
space density, the specific form of which we derive for a classical gas. Our
predictions show qualitative agreement with the data from [Hodby et al, Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf{94}}, 120402 (2005)] without the use of adjustable parameters