Direct Monte Carlo simulation of the sympathetic cooling of trapped molecules by ultracold argon atoms

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We demonstrate that cold molecules (H2 and benzene) can be created at temperatures below 1 mK by sympathetic cooling with laser-cooled rare gas atoms on timescales of seconds. The thermalization process is studied using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, which allows a detailed analysis of the atomic and molecular spatial and energy distributions as a function of time. As part of this study, ultracold elastic cross sections for Ar–Ar and Ar–C6H6 are also calculated.