Observation of Heteronuclear Feshbach Molecules from a 85^{85}Rb - 87^{87}Rb gas

We report on the observation of ultracold heteronuclear Feshbach molecules. Starting with a $^{87}$Rb BEC and a cold atomic gas of $^{85}$Rb, we utilize previously unobserved interspecies Feshbach resonances to create up to 25,000 molecules. Even though the $^{85}$Rb gas is non-degenerate we observe a large molecular conversion efficiency due to the presence of a quantum degenerate $^{87}$Rb gas; this represents a key feature of our system. We compare the molecule creation at two different Feshbach resonances with different magnetic-field widths. The two Feshbach resonances are located at $265.44\pm0.15$ G and $372.4\pm1.3$ G. We also directly measure the small binding energy of the molecules through resonant magnetic-field association.Comment: v2 - minor change

Unified treatment of the Coulomb and harmonic oscillator potentials in DD dimensions

Quantum mechanical models and practical calculations often rely on some exactly solvable models like the Coulomb and the harmonic oscillator potentials. The $D$ dimensional generalized Coulomb potential contains these potentials as limiting cases, thus it establishes a continuous link between the Coulomb and harmonic oscillator potentials in various dimensions. We present results which are necessary for the utilization of this potential as a model and practical reference problem for quantum mechanical calculations. We define a Hilbert space basis, the generalized Coulomb-Sturmian basis, and calculate the Green's operator on this basis and also present an SU(1,1) algebra associated with it. We formulate the problem for the one-dimensional case too, and point out that the complications arising due to the singularity of the one-dimensional Coulomb problem can be avoided with the use of the generalized Coulomb potential.Comment: 18 pages, 3 ps figures, revte

Continued fraction representation of the Coulomb Green's operator and unified description of bound, resonant and scattering states

If a quantum mechanical Hamiltonian has an infinite symmetric tridiagonal (Jacobi) matrix form in some discrete Hilbert-space basis representation, then its Green's operator can be constructed in terms of a continued fraction. As an illustrative example we discuss the Coulomb Green's operator in Coulomb-Sturmian basis representation. Based on this representation, a quantum mechanical approximation method for solving Lippmann-Schwinger integral equations can be established, which is equally applicable for bound-, resonant- and scattering-state problems with free and Coulombic asymptotics as well. The performance of this technique is illustrated with a detailed investigation of a nuclear potential describing the interaction of two $\alpha$ particles.Comment: 7 pages, 4 ps figures, revised versio