Stability of rubidium molecules in the lowest triplet state

Experiments involving ultracold molecules require sufficiently long lifetimes, which can be very short for excited rovibrational states in the molecular potentials. For alkali-metal atoms such as rubidium, a lowest rovibrational molecular state can both be found in the electronic singlet and triplet configurations. The molecular singlet ground state is absolutely stable. However, the lowest triplet state can decay to a deeper bound singlet molecule due to a radiative decay mechanism that involves the interatomic spin-orbit interaction. We investigate this mechanism, and find the lifetime of rubidium molecules in the lowest triplet rovibrational state to be about 20 min.