Purely-long-range bound states of He$(2s^{3}S)+$He$(2p^{3}P)$

Abstract

We predict the presence and positions of purely-long-range bound states of ${}^4$He$(2s^{3}S)+{}^4$He$(2p^{3}P)$ near the $2s^3{S}_1+2p^3{P}_{0,1}$ atomic limits. The results of the full multichannel and approximate models are compared, and we assess the sensitivity of the bound states to atomic parameters characterizing the potentials. Photoassociation to these purely-long-range molecular bound states may improve the knowledge of the scattering length associated with the collisions of two ultracold spin-polarized ${}^4$He$(2s^{3}S)$ atoms, which is important for studies of Bose-Einstein condensates.

16 pages, 5 figures