Electric dipoles vs. magnetic dipoles —For two molecules in a harmonic trap

Abstract

\n\nWe study energy levels of two heteronuclear molecules moving in a spherically symmetric harmonic trap. A role of electric dipole interactions is compared and contrasted with our earlier results (Ołdziejewski R. et al., EPL, 114 (2016) 46003) for two magnetic dipolar atoms. We stress the importance of a rotational energy with its value which is very high compared to the energy of a dipolar interaction. We show that dipolar forces do not play a significant role in the ground state of the system under typical experimental conditions. However, there exist excited states that exhibit anticrossings similar to the ones observed for magnetic dipoles.\n