Au, Yat ShanConnolly, ColinKetterle, WolfgangDoyle, John2017-06-232014Au, Yat Shan, Colin B. Connolly, Wolfgang Ketterle, and John M. Doyle. 2014. Vibrational Quenching of the Electronic Ground State in ThO in Cold Collisions with 3He. Physical Review A 90, no. 3. doi:10.1103/physreva.90.032703.1050-2947http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33077884We measure the ratio γ of the momentum transfer–to–vibrational quenching cross section for molecular thorium monoxide (ThO) [ X ( 1 Σ + ) , v = 1 , J = 0 ] in collisions with atomic helium between 800 mK and 2.4 K. We find γ ∼ 10 4 . We also observe indirect evidence for ThO-He van der Waals complex formation, which has been predicted by theory [Tscherbul, Sayfutyarova, Buchachenko, and Dalgarno, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 144301 (2011)], and in conjunction, we determine the three-body recombination rate constant at 2.4 K, Γ 3 = 8 ± 2 × 10 − 33 cm 6 s − 1 .en-USJournal Article2017-06-2310.1103/PhysRevA.90.032703