We discuss a major theoretical generalization of existing techniques for handling the three-body problem that accurately describes the interactions among four fermionic atoms. Application to a two-component Fermi gas accurately determines dimer-dimer scattering parameters at finite energies and can give deeper insight into the corresponding many-body phenomena. To account for finite temperature effects, we calculate the energy-dependent complex dimer-dimer scattering length, which includes contributions from elastic and inelastic collisions. Our results indicate that strong finite-energy effects and dimer dissociation are crucial for understanding the physics in the strongly interacting regime for typical experimental conditions. While our results for dimer-dimer relaxation are consistent with experiment, they confirm only partially a previously published theoretical result.

• Received 18 June 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.79.030501