Magnetic Feshbach resonances in collisions of nonmagnetic closed-shell (1)Sigma molecules

Magnetic Feshbach resonances play a central role in experimental research on atomic gases at ultracold temperatures, as they allow one to control the microscopic interactions between ultracold atoms by tuning an applied magnetic field. These resonances arise due to strong hyperfine interactions between the unpaired electron and the nuclear magnetic moment of the alkali metal atoms. A major thrust of current research is to create an ultracold gas of diatomic alkalimetal molecules in the ground rovibrational state of the ground electronic (1)Sigma state. Unlike alkalimetal atoms, (1)Sigma diatomic molecules have no unpaired electrons. However, the hyperfine interactions of molecules may give rise to magnetic Feshbach resonances. We use quantum scattering calculations to study the possible width of these resonances. Our results show that the widths ofmagnetic Feshbach resonances in ultracold molecule-molecule collisions for (1)Sigma molecules may exceed 1 mG, rendering such resonances experimentally detectable. We hope that this work will stimulate the experimental search of these resonances.