Title:
Cold elastic collisions of sodium and rubidium

dc.contributor.advisor Kennedy, T. A. Brian
dc.contributor.author Breuer, John en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Chapman, Michael
dc.contributor.committeeMember Zangwill, Andrew
dc.contributor.department Physics en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2009-08-26T17:48:20Z
dc.date.available 2009-08-26T17:48:20Z
dc.date.issued 2009-07-01 en_US
dc.description.abstract In this thesis we numerically compute the scattering lengths and bound states for sodium-rubidium collisions at low energy. This work was motivated by experiments which aim to produce Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) mixtures of sodium-rubidium. Elastic collision properties are important for the rethermalization of the atoms during the evaporative cooling process. Inelastic processes, which we also discuss to some extent, cause trap losses in those experiments. In order to reach the required temperature and density the elastic collision rates should be sufficiently large compared to the inelastic rates. The scattering lengths, which completely specify the elastic collision parameters at low energy, determine the miscibility and phase diagram of the sodium-rubidium condensate mixture. We calculate the scattering lengths approximately and find agreement with previous calculations indicating that miscible phases of sodium and rubidium condensates do not appear to be feasible in the absence of external fields. en_US
dc.description.degree M.S. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/29690
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Scattering length en_US
dc.subject Elastic scattering at low energy en_US
dc.subject Scattering theory en_US
dc.subject Quantum mechanics en_US
dc.subject Alkali potentials en_US
dc.subject Two-species BEC en_US
dc.subject Miscibility en_US
dc.subject Rubidium en_US
dc.subject Sodium en_US
dc.subject BEC en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Rubidium
dc.subject.lcsh Sodium
dc.subject.lcsh Collisions (Physics)
dc.subject.lcsh Scattering (Physics)
dc.subject.lcsh Bose-Einstein condensation
dc.title Cold elastic collisions of sodium and rubidium en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Kennedy, T. A. Brian
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename School of Physics
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 41e37437-378c-49a4-8756-ed2bc4ae2b43
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 2ba39017-11f1-40f4-9bc5-66f17b8f1539
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