DECAY OF TRAPPED ULTRACOLD ALKALI ATOMS BY RECOMBINATION

Using the knowledge of two-body collision properties that has recently become available, we estimate the three-body recombination rate for d oubly-spin-polarized ultracold gas samples of Li-7, Na-23 and Rb-87 On the basis of the Jastrow approximation. We find that only recombinati on leading to the formation of the highest two-body bound states is im portant. The rate for the highest bound level with zero angular moment um is found to increase strongly with the absolute value of the two-bo dy scattering length.