Strongly enhanced inelastic collisions in a Bose–Einstein condensate near Feshbach resonances

The properties of Bose–Einstein condensed gases can be strongly altered by tuning the external magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance. Feshbach resonances affect elastic collisions and lead to the observed modification of the scattering length. However, as we report here, this is accompanied by a strong increase in the rate of inelastic collisions. The observed three–body loss rate in a sodium Bose–Einstein condensate increased when the scattering length was tuned to both larger or smaller values than the off–resonant value. This observation and the maximum measured increase of the loss rate by several orders of magnitude are not accounted for by theoretical treatments. The strong losses impose severe limitations for using Feshbach resonances to tune the properties of Bose–Einstein condensates. A new Feshbach resonance in sodium at 1195 G was observed.