@phdthesis{6927,
  author = {J. Burke Jr.},
  title = {Theoretical Investigation of Cold Alkali Atom},
  abstract = {<p>Theoretical techniques are developed to solve the coupled Schrodinger equations that describe cold magnetically trapped alkali atom dynamics. In particular, a multichannel quantum defect formulation is presented to separate cleanly the atomdependent from the atom-independent contributions to the final scattering matrices. The resulting approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of cold alkali collisions and improves substantially on the efficiency of calculations. Improved Rb two-body interaction potentials are extracted from measured <sup>87</sup>Rb inelastic collision rates and from the measured position and width of a <sup>85</sup>Rb Feshbach resonance. Using these state-of-the-art potentials, specific atomic hyperfine states have been identified whose collisional properties suggest intriguing possibilities for interesting and novel degenerate gas studies. In addition, a detailed analysis of <sup>39</sup>K photoassociation lineshapes has permitted the determination of accurate two-body interaction potentials for this atom as well. Finally, three-body recombination of doubly polarized trapped atoms is investigated. Two qualitatively different mechanisms which control the recombination rate are identified for positive and negative two-body scattering lengths\&nbsp;α. Surprisingly, the recombination rate is found to scale approximately as α<sup>4</sup> in both cases.</p>},
  year = {1999},
  publisher = {University of Colorado Boulder},
}