Konwersatorium im. Leopolda Infelda

Ultracold polar molecules open new prospects for quantum gases withlong-range and anisotropic interactions and can find applications inquantum information science and in precision measurement. Recentexperiments reported production of relatively dense gases or lattices ofultracold molecules in their rotational and vibrational ground state. Itis essential to understand elastic, inelastic and reactive collisions ofsuch molecules in order to control and utilize them effectively. In thistalk I will briefly review recent advances in this field, and I willpresent a method based on the concept of a quantum defect to modelcollisions of ultracold molecules. In the case of highly reactivemolecules this method predicts universal reaction rates that can becalculated analytically from a knowledge of the long-range part of theinteraction potential.