%0 Journal Article %J Physical Review Letters %D 2003 %T Ultracold collision properties of metastable alkaline-earth atoms %A Andrei Derevianko %A Sergey G. Porsev %A Svetlana Kotochigova %A Eite Tiesinga %A Paul S. Julienne %X Ultra-cold collisions of spin-polarized 24Mg,40Ca, and 88Sr in the metastable 3P2 excited state are investigated. We calculate the long-range interaction potentials and estimate the scattering length and the collisional loss rate as a function of magnetic field. The estimates are based on molecular potentials between 3P2 alkaline-earth atoms obtained from ab initio atomic and molecular structure calculations. The scattering lengths show resonance behavior due to the appearance of a molecular bound state in a purely long-range interaction potential and are positive for magnetic fields below 50 mT. A loss-rate model shows that losses should be smallest near zero magnetic field and for fields slightly larger than the resonance field, where the scattering length is also positive. %B Physical Review Letters %V 90 %8 2003/2/13 %G eng %U http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0210076v1 %N 6 %! Phys. Rev. Lett. %R 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.063002