Nonadiabatic losses from radio-frequency-dressed cold-atom traps: beyond the Landau-Zener model

Nonadiabatic decay rates for a radio-frequency-dressed magnetic trap are calculated using Fermi’s golden rule: that is, we examine the probability for a single atom to make transitions out of the dressed trap and into a continuum in the adiabatic limit, where perturbation theory can be applied. This approach can be compared to the semiclassical Landau-Zener theory of a resonant dressed atom trap, and it is found that, when carefully implemented, the Landau-Zener theory overestimates the rate of nonadiabatic spin-flip transitions in the adiabatic limit. This indicates that care is needed when determining requirements on trap Rabi frequency and magnetic-field gradient in practical atom traps.