@article{1782, author = {A. Avdeenkov and M. Kajita and John Bohn}, title = {Suppression of inelastic collisions of polar 1Σ state molecules in an electrostatic field}, abstract = {Collisions of polar 1 Σ state molecules at ultralow energies are considered, within a model that accounts for long-range dipole-dipole interactions, plus rotation of the molecules. We predict a substantial suppression of dipole-driven inelastic collisions at high values of the applied electric field, namely, field values of several times B 0 ∕ μ . Here B 0 is the rotational constant, and μ is the electric dipole moment of molecules. The sudden large drop in the inelastic cross section is attributed to the onset of degeneracy between molecular rotational levels, which dramatically alters the scattering Hamiltonian. This capability could, in principle, be used to stabilize ultracold gases against collisional losses.}, year = {2006}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {73}, pages = {022707}, month = {2006-02}, issn = {1050-2947}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.73.022707}, }