Abstract
We study the lifetime of a Bose gas at and around unitarity using a Feshbach resonance in lithium 7. At unitarity, we measure the temperature dependence of the three-body decay coefficient L3. Our data follow a L3=λ3/T2 law with λ3=2.5(3) stat(6)syst×10-20 (μK)2 cm6 s -1 and are in good agreement with our analytical result based on zero-range theory. Varying the scattering length a at fixed temperature, we investigate the crossover between the finite-temperature unitary region and the previously studied regime where |a| is smaller than the thermal wavelength. We find that L3 is continuous across the resonance, and over the whole a<0 range our data quantitatively agree with our calculation.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 163202 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 110 |
Issue number | 16 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 19 Apr 2013 |