title: Cold N+NH collisions in a magnetic trap.
abstract: We present an experimental and theoretical study of atom-molecule collisions in a mixture of cold, trapped N atoms and NH molecules at a temperature of ∼600  mK. We measure a small N+NH trap loss rate coefficient of k(loss)(N+NH)=9(5)(3)×10(-13)  cm(3) s(-1). Accurate quantum scattering calculations based on ab initio interaction potentials are in agreement with experiment and indicate the magnetic dipole interaction to be the dominant loss mechanism. Our theory further indicates the ratio of N+NH elastic-to-inelastic collisions remains large (>100) into the mK regime.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. matt@cua.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hummon
authors.forename: Timur V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Tscherbul
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kłos
authors.forename: Hsin-I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Edem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tsikata
authors.forename: Wesley C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dalgarno
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Doyle