The three-body problem with short-range interactions

The quantum mechanical three-body problem is studied for general short-range interactions. We work in coordinate space to facilitate accurate computations of weakly bound and spatially extended systems. Hyperspherical coordinates are used in both the interpretation and as an integral part of the numerical method. Universal properties and model independence are discussed throughout the report. We present an overview of the hyperspherical adiabatic Faddeev equations. The wave function is expanded on hyperspherical angular eigenfunctions which in turn are found numerically using the Faddeev equations. We generalize the formalism to any dimension of space d greater or equal to two. We present two numerical techniques for solving the Faddeev equations on the hypersphere. These techniques are effective for short and intermediate/large distances including use for hard core repulsive potentials. We study the asymptotic limit of large hyperradius and derive the analytic behaviour of the angular eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. We discuss four applications of the general method. We first analyze the Efimov and Thomas effects for arbitrary angular momenta and for arbitrary dimensions d. Second we apply the method to extract the general behaviour of weakly bound three-body systems in two dimensions. Third we illustrate the method in three dimensions by structure computations of Borromean halo nuclei, the hypertriton and helium molecules. Fourth we investigate in three dimensions three-body continuum properties of Borromean halo nuclei and recombination reactions of helium atoms as an example of direct relevance for the stability of Bose–Einstein condensates.     

Borromean three-body heteroatomic resonances

We present an approach to analyze recent experimental evidences of Efimov resonant states in mixtures of ultracold gases, by considering two-species three-body atomic systems bound in a Borromean configuration, where all the two-body interactions are unbound. For such Borromean three-body systems, it is shown that a continuum three-body s-wave resonance emerges from an Efimov state as a scattering length or a three-body scale is moved. The energy and width of the resonant state are determined from a scaling function with arguments given by dimension-less energy ratios relating the two-body virtual state subsystem energies with the shallowest three-body bound state. The peculiar behavior of such resonances is that their peaks are expected to move to lower values of the scattering length, with increasing width, as one raises the temperature. For Borromean systems, two resonant peaks are expected in ultralow-temperature regimes, which will disappear at higher energies. It is shown how a Borromean-Efimov excited bound state turns out to a resonant state by tuning the virtual two-body subsystem energies or scattering lengths, with all energies written in units of the next deeper shallowest Efimov state energy. The resonance position and width for the decay into the continuum are obtained as universal scaling functions (limit cycle) of the dimensionless ratios of the two and three-body scales, which are calculated numerically within a zero-range renormalized three-body model.     

Origin of three-body resonances

We expose the relation between the properties of the three-body continuum states and their two-body subsystems. These properties refer to their bound and virtual states and resonances, all defined as poles of the S-matrix. For one infinitely heavy core and two non-interacting light particles, the complex energies of the three-body poles are the sum of the two two-body complex pole-energies. These generic relations are modified by center-of-mass effects which alone can produce a Borromean system. We show how the three-body states evolve in ⁶He, ⁶Li, and ⁶Be when the nucleon-nucleon interaction is continuously switched on. The schematic model is able to reproduce the main properties in their spectra. Realistic calculations for these nuclei are shown in detail for comparison. The implications of a core with non-zero spin are investigated and illustrated for ¹⁷Ne ( ¹⁵O + p + p). Dimensionless units allow predictions for systems of different scales.     

Borromean Windows for Three-Particle Systems under Screened Coulomb Interactions

We have carried out calculations to search Borromean windows(BWs) for 11 different three-body systems interacting with screened Coulomb(Yukawa-type) potentials using Hylleraas-type wave functions within the framework of a variational approach. The critical values of the screening parameters for the ground states of the systems under consideration are reported for which the three-body systems are stable, while all the possible fragments are unbound;that is, it shows windows for Borromean binding.     

Model three-body problem in the molecular mass limit

The bound states of a three-body molecule composed of two identical heavy nuclei and a light “electron” interacting through short-range s-wave potentials are studied. The spectrum of three-body bound states grows as the mass ratio m between the heavy and light particles increases, and presents a remarkable vibration rotation structure that can be fitted with the usual empirical energy formulas of molecular spectroscopy. The results of the exact three-body calculation for the binding energy and bound-state wavefunction are compared with the predictions of the Born-Oppenheimer method for the same system. We find that for m > 30, the Born-Oppenheimer approximation yields very good results for both the binding energies and wavefunctions. For smaller m (1 <m < 30) the Born-Oppenheimer results are still surprisingly good and this is shown to be related to the range of the two-body interactions.     

Liberating Efimov Physics from Three Dimensions

When two particles attract via a resonant short-range interaction, three particles always form an infinite tower of bound states characterized by a discrete scaling symmetry. It has been considered that this Efimov effect exists only in three dimensions. Here we review how the Efimov physics can be liberated from three dimensions by considering two-body and three-body interactions in mixed dimensions and four-body interaction in one dimension. In such new systems, intriguing phenomena appear, such as confinement-induced Efimov effect, Bose?CFermi crossover in Efimov spectrum, and formation of interlayer Efimov trimers. Some of them are observable in ultracold atom experiments and we believe that this study significantly broadens our horizons of universal Efimov physics.     

Bound states and resonant states of three self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates

The effect of Yukawa potentials on the bound states and resonance states for systems with three self-gravitating bosons and fermions has been investigated using highly correlated basis functions. The complex coordinate rotation method is used to extract resonance parameters. We have investigated the Borromean binding for such systems. The ground and excited state energies, resonance energy and width for the lowest two resonances are reported for different screening parameters along with the critical range for Borromean binding.     

Sensitivity of the three-body calculations to different effects

The bound state of few-body systems in light nuclei is studied as a three-body problem. The three-body problem is solved following the different approaches of the Faddeev formalism as well as the unitary pole approximation. Separable approximations are introduced to reduce the three-body problem to a set of coupled integral equations. Numerical calculations are carried out for the resulting integral equations and the separable expansion. In the present work, we calculate the ground-state binding energy of the bound three-nucleon system³H. The main interest of the present work is to investigate the sensitivity of the three-body binding energy to different effects in the problem. For this reason, we study the dependence of the three-body binding energy of different forms of local and separable two-body potentials, on the effective range of the two-body potentials, and on the percent of theD state in the deuteron wave function. Also, we test the sensitivity of the three-body binding energy to the considered number of terms from the separable expansion.     

Two-body and three-body effective interactions in nuclei

Finite-range two-body and zero-range three-body effective forces for use in spin unsaturated systems are determined so as to reproduce the total binding energies, rms radii, and single-particle energies of ¹⁶O, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁴⁸Ca and ⁹⁰Zr; the saturation of nuclear matter; and experimental two-body matrix elements extracted by Schiffer and True. In addition to the Skyrme three-body force which acts only in spatially even states, a spatially odd force is introduced to obtain sufficient generality. The Landau parameters and the effective mass specified by this force are also discussed.     

A class of exactly solvable three-body quantum mechanical problems and the universal low energy behavior

Three-body systems with two-body point interactions are studied. These systems are the universal low energy limits of three-body problems with short-range two-body forces. Hence if there are infinitely many spherically symmetric three-body bound states with energies E_n then lim_n→∞E_n/E_n+1 = e^2λσ, where σ is explicitly computed.     

How to Classify Three-Body Forces – And Why

For systems with only short-range forces and shallow two-body bound states, the typical strength of any three-body force in all partial waves, including external currents, is systematically estimated by renormalization-group arguments in the effective field theory of point-like interactions. The underlying principle and some consequences in particular in nuclear physics are discussed. Details and a better bibliography can be found in ref. [1]. Present address: Universit?t Erlangen     

Universal properties of two-dimensional boson droplets

We consider a system of N nonrelativistic bosons in two dimensions, interacting weakly via a short-range attractive potential. We show that for N large, but below some critical value, the properties of the N-boson bound state are universal. In particular, the ratio of the binding energies of (N+1)- and N-boson systems, B(N+1)/B(N), approaches a finite limit, approximately 8.567, at large N. We also confirm previous results that the three-body system has exactly two bound states. We find for the ground state B(0)(3)=16.522 688(1)B2 and for the excited state B(1)(3)=1.270 409 1(1)B2.     

Trajectory of virtual, bound and resonant Efimov states

The pole trajectory of Efimov states for a three-body ααβ system with αα unbound and αβ bound is calculated using a zero-range Dirac-δ potential. It is shown that a three-body bound state turns into a virtual one by increasing the αβ binding energy. This result is consistent with previous results for three equal mass particles. The present approach considers the n-n-¹⁸C halo nucleus. However, the results have good perspective to be tested and applied in ultracold atomic systems, where one can realize such three-body configuration with tunable two-body interaction.     

Scattering length scaling laws for ultracold three-body collisions

We present a simple and unifying picture that provides the energy and scattering length dependence for all inelastic three-body collision rates in the ultracold regime for three-body systems with short-range two-body interactions. Here, we present the scaling laws for vibrational relaxation, three-body recombination, and collision-induced dissociation for systems that support s-wave two-body collisions. These systems include three identical bosons, two identical bosons, and two identical fermions. Our approach reproduces all previous results, predicts several others, and gives the general form of the scaling laws in all cases.     

Universality of Three-Body Systems in 2D: Parametrization of the Bound States Energies

Universal properties of mass-imbalanced three-body systems in 2D are studied using zero-range interactions in momentum space. The dependence of the three-particle binding energy on the parameters (masses and two-body energies) is highly non-trivial even in the simplest case of two identical particles and a distinct one. This dependence is parametrized for ground and excited states in terms of supercircles functions in the most general case of three distinguishable particles.     

A renormalized equation for the three-body system with short-range interactions

We study the three-body system with short-range interactions characterized by an unnaturally large two-body scattering length. We show that the off-shell scattering amplitude is cutoff independent up to power corrections. This allows us to derive an exact renormalization group equation for the three-body force. We also obtain a renormalized equation for the off-shell scattering amplitude. This equation is invariant under discrete scale transformations. The periodicity of the spectrum of bound states originally observed by Efimov is a consequence of this symmetry. The functional dependence of the three-body scattering length on the two-body scattering length can be obtained analytically using the asymptotic solution to the integral equation. An analogous formula for the three-body recombination coefficient is also obtained.     

Precise numerical results for limit cycles in the quantum three-body problem

The study of the three-body problem with short-range attractive two-body forces has a rich history going back to the 1930s. Recent applications of effective field theory methods to atomic and nuclear physics have produced a much improved understanding of this problem, and we elucidate some of the issues using renormalization group ideas applied to precise nonperturbative calculations. These calculations provide 11-12 digits of precision for the binding energies in the infinite cutoff limit. The method starts with this limit as an approximation to an effective theory and allows cutoff dependence to be systematically computed as an expansion in powers of inverse cutoffs and logarithms of the cutoff. Renormalization of three-body bound states requires a short range three-body interaction, with a coupling that is governed by a precisely mapped limit cycle of the renormalization group. Additional three-body irrelevant interactions must be determined to control subleading dependence on the cutoff and this control is essential for an effective field theory since the continuum limit is not likely to match physical systems (e.g., few-nucleon bound and scattering states at low energy). Leading order calculations precise to 11-12 digits allow clear identification of subleading corrections, but these corrections have not been computed.     

Model Study of Three-Body Forces in the Three-Body Bound State

The Faddeev equation for the three-body bound state with two- and three-body forces is solved directly as three-dimensional integral equation. The numerical feasibility and stability of the algorithm, which does not employ partial wave decomposition is demonstrated. The three-body binding energy and the full wave function are calculated with Malfliet-Tjon-type two-body potentials and scalar two-meson exchange three-body forces. For two- and three- body forces of ranges and strengths typical of nuclear forces the single-particle momentum distribution and the two-body correlation function are similar to the ones found for realistic nuclear forces.