Nonequilibrium kinetics of neutral atoms confined in a harmonic potential

✍ Scribed by K.J. Coakley

• Book ID: 104341365
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 833 KB
• Volume: 234
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-4371
• DOI: 10.1016/s0378-4371(96)00272-5

✦ Synopsis

The nonequilibrium behavior of neutral atoms confined in a harmonic potential is simulated by a Monte Carlo method. Atoms obey Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics. Initially, the probability distribution function (pdf) for each of the three energy components, Ex, Ey and Ez, is taken to be a truncated exponential with cutoff Ec. Collisions between atoms are simulated assuming s wave scattering in the center-of-mass frame. Because the energy distributions in the three different dimensions were indistinguishable, all three energy components are assumed to have the same pdf. The time-varying pdf for the energy components is modeled as a mixture of two pdf's. Each of the two pdf's in the mixture is a truncated exponential; one applies to energies below the cutoff, the other pdf applies to energies above the cutoff. Each truncated exponential is characterized by a time-dependent decay parameter. A statistical model for the time-dependent decay parameters, and a mixture parameter, is developed.