title: Tuning ultracold chemical reactions via Rydberg-dressed interactions.
abstract: We show that ultracold chemical reactions with an activation barrier can be tuned using Rydberg-dressed interactions. Scattering in the ultracold regime is sensitive to long-range interactions, especially when weakly bound (or quasibound) states exist near the collision threshold. We investigate how, by Rydberg dressing a reactant, one enhances its polarizability and modifies the long-range van der Waals collision complex, which can alter chemical reaction rates by shifting the position of near-threshold bound states. We carry out a full quantum mechanical scattering calculation for the benchmark system H(2)+D, and show that resonances can be moved substantially and that rate coefficients at cold and ultracold temperatures can be increased by several orders of magnitude.
authors: Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, 2152 Hillside Road, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA.
authors: Jia
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, 2152 Hillside Road, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA and Quantum Theory Project, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
authors: Jason N
authors: JN
authors: Byrd
authors: Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, 2152 Hillside Road, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA.
authors: Ion
authors: I
authors: Simbotin
authors: Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, 2152 Hillside Road, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA and Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Côté