We study ultracold three-body recombination of spin-polarized ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ and ${}^{23}\mathrm{Na}$ atoms using realistic triplet diatomic interaction potentials. The three-body Schrödinger equation is solved in the $J=0$ symmetry using the hybrid slow variable discretization–adiabatic hyperspherical $R$-matrix method. Total, channel-to-channel, and product-state-selective recombination rates are calculated and analyzed in terms of the adiabatic hyperspherical potentials and nonadiabatic couplings. The calculated product-state distributions show a clear contrast between the two systems: In ${}^7\mathrm{Li}_3$, recombination is distributed among several weakly bound rovibrational product states, whereas in ${}^{23}\mathrm{Na}_3$, it is strongly concentrated into the least-bound nonrotational dimer state. These results provide theoretical benchmarks for future state-resolved studies of ultracold alkali-atom three-body recombination.

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• Chemical reactions
• Scattering of atoms, molecules, clusters & ions
• Ultracold collisions