Scaling functions applied to three-body recombination of Cs-133 atoms

Journal article, 2008

We demonstrate the implications of Efimov physics in the recently measured recombination rate of Cs-133 atoms. By employing previously calculated results for the energy dependence of the recombination rate of He-4 atoms, we obtain three independent scaling functions that are capable of describing the recombination rates over a large energy range for identical bosons with large scattering length. We benchmark these and previously obtained scaling functions by successfully comparing their predictions with full atom-dimer phase shift calculations with artificial He-4 potentials yielding large scattering lengths. Exploiting universality, we finally use these functions to determine the three-body recombination rate of Cs-133 atoms with large positive scattering length, compare our results to experimental data obtained by Kraemer at Innsbruck and find excellent agreement.