Semianalytic theory of laser-assisted resonant cold collisions

A general formalism is derived for analytically representing the scattering properties of ultracold atoms subject to one or more resonant photoassocia tion lasers. The resulting formulas cleanly separate laser intensities and detunings from overlap integrals of molecular wave functions. As a conseque nce. laser-induced energy shifts and line broadenings are given in an expli cit form. Ln the case of the initial photoassociation step, these quantitie s are given more simply in terms of the relevant molecular potential curves and wave functions near the Condon point. [S1050-2947(99)01007-7].