Anisotropic thermalization of dilute dipolar gases

We study collisional rethermalization in ultracold dipolar thermal gases, made intricate by their anisotropic differential cross sections. Theoretical methods are provided to derive the number of collisions per rethermalization [Monroe et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 414 (1993)], which, for dipolar gases, is highly dependent on the dipole alignment axis. These methods are formulated to be easily applied in experimental contexts, even reducing to...