Two dipolar atoms in a harmonic trap

Abstract

Two identical dipolar atoms moving in a harmonic trap without an external magnetic field are investigated. Using the algebra of angular momentum a semi -analytical solutions are found. We show that the internal spin -spin interactions between the atoms couple to the orbital angular momentum causing an analogue of Einstein -de Haas effect. We show a possibility of adiabatically pumping our system from the s-wave to the d-wave relative motion. The effective spin-orbit coupling occurs at anti-crossings of the energy levels.PACS numbers: 03.75.-b, 67.85.-d

Electric dipoles vs. magnetic dipoles —For two molecules in a harmonic trap

“…The plot is very similar to the one from ref. [12]. For k ≈ 1.3 very narrow anticrossing between the 3rd state and the 4th state occurs.…”

“…The reason for this is its significant influence on the behaviour of Bose-Einstein condensate, which can be also observed for other atoms with large magnetic moment, like erbium [3] or dysprosium [4,5]. Beside theoretical works on large condensates [6][7][8][9][10][11], there have appeared papers on a few (even two [12][13][14]) interacting particles. Moreover, due to a progress in controlling single atoms in optical lattices [15,16], we hope that in the near future it will be possible to check all these predictions in experiments.…”

“…Especially we are interested in analyzing the effect which was described in ref. [12]. It turns out, that for a totally spherically symmetric system of two magnetic dipolar atoms in a harmonic trap it is possible to generate a non-zero relative orbital angular momentum by changing the strength of the dipole-dipole interaction (which may be effectively done by manipulating the trap frequency).…”

“…On the other hand, in the case of ref. [12] no direction is specified (only the L 2 is generated, but all L x , L y , L z remain equal to zero), so there is a chance to find some analogues effect.…”

Two interacting ultracold molecules in a one-dimensional harmonic trap

“…Recently, energy spectra of harmonically trapped two-atom systems with spin-orbit coupling have been investigated in one dimension [21] and three dimensions [22,23]. Low-energy states of two atoms with a dipole moment in a 3D harmonic trap have also been investigated [24][25][26]. Systems of several fermions [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] or several bosons [35][36][37][38][39] in a 1D harmonic trap have been studied using various analytical and numerical approaches.…”