Coupled-channel analysis of Ne* thermalization cross section

We investigate the relation between the thermalization cross section ⟨σ⟩T and the scattering length a of spin-polarized metastable neon (Ne*) in the Doppler-limited temperature regime. We show that a temperature-dependent, quantum-mechanical, five-channel calculation allows one to obtain a consistent with the mass scaling rule between Ne*20 and Ne*22 from recent data of ⟨σ⟩T by Spoden [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 223201 (2005)]. We find a=+24-5+5a0 or a=-128-22+16a0 for Ne*20 and +115≲a≲+160a0 for Ne*22 , respectively. According to numerical simulations of the evaporative cooling process, these values of a are not large enough to make Bose-Einstein condensation of Ne* feasible for realistic experimental conditions, given the measured ionization rate constants