title: Cold state-selected molecular collisions and reactions.
abstract: Over the past decade, and particularly the past five years, a quiet revolution has been building at the border between atomic physics and experimental quantum chemistry. The rapid development of techniques for producing cold and even ultracold molecules without a perturbing rare-gas cluster shell is now enabling the study of chemical reactions and scattering at the quantum scattering limit with only a few partial waves contributing to the incident channel. Moreover, the ability to perform these experiments with nonthermal distributions comprising one or a few specific states enables the observation and even full control of state-to-state collision rates in this computation-friendly regime: This is perhaps the most elementary study possible of scattering and reaction dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Joint Quantum Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Maryland, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899.
authors.forename: Benjamin K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Stuhl
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hummon
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ye
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D004867:Equipment Design; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry; D010825:Physics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011789:Quantum Theory
chemical_list: D005740:Gases