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Abstract:
We investigate the dipole relaxation of a cesium atomic gas prepared in its lowest hyperfine level (F = 3) and confined in a magnetic trap. We measure a rate ~ 4 × 10−13, for a field of 0.1 mT and a temperature 1 μK. This value is 2 orders of magnitude larger than for lighter alkalis. It puts strong constraints on the trapping mechanism which could lead to the Bose-Einstein condensation of cesium.