Impact of the 87Rb singlet scattering length on suppressing inelastic collisions

A computation of 87Rb-87Rb spin-exchange rate constants as functions of the two-body singlet scattering length as demonstrates that the inelastic collision rate is suppressed over a small range of the possible values for as. A two-channel model relates this inelastic suppression to an interference phenomenon, manifested in the near coincidence of the singlet and triplet scattering lengths. This mechanism explains the diminished rates measured in recent open-quotes double-trapclose quotes experiments. Combining information extracted from these rates and from previous scattering length measurements allows us to place bounds on the 87Rb singlet scattering length (74 endash 102 a.u.). copyright 1997 The American Physical Society