We develop a series of resonant short-range two-boson potentials reproducing the same two-body low-energy observables and apply them in three- and four-body calculations. We demonstrate that the universal behavior predicted by effective field theory may be strongly violated and analyze the conditions for this phenomenon.
Two-, three-, and four-boson systems are studied close to the unitary limit using potential models constructed to reproduce the minimal information given by the two-body scattering length a and the two-body binding energy or virtual-state energy E2. The particular path used to reach the unitary limit is given by varying the potential strength. In this way the energy spectrum in the three- and four-boson systems is computed. The lowest-energy states show finite-range effects absorbed in the construction of level functions that can be used to study real systems. Higher-energy levels are free from finite-range effects, therefore the corresponding level functions tend to the zero-range universal function. Using this property, a zero-range equation for the four-boson system is proposed and the four-boson universal function is computed.
The role of an intrinsic four-body scale in universal few-boson systems is the subject of active debate. We study these systems within the framework of effective field theory. For systems of up to six bosons we establish that no four-body scale appears at leading order (LO). However, we find that at next-to-leading order (NLO) a four-body force is needed to obtain renormalized results for binding energies. With the associated parameter fixed to the binding energy of the four-boson system, this force is shown to renormalize the five- and six-body systems as well. We present an original ansatz for the short-distance limit of the bosonic A-body wave function from which we conjecture that new A-body scales appear at N^{A-3} LO. As a specific example, calculations are presented for clusters of helium atoms. Our results apply more generally to other few-body systems governed by a large scattering length, such as light nuclei and halo states, the low-energy properties of which are independent of the detailed internal structure of the constituents.
The two-body scattering length a for 4He atoms is much larger than their effective range rs. As a consequence, low-energy few-body observables have universal characteristics that are independent of the interaction potential. Universality implies that, up to corrections suppressed by rs/a, all low-energy three-body observables are determined by a and a three-body parameter ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{*}.$ We give simple expressions in terms of a and ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{*}$ for the trimer binding-energy equation, the atom-dimer scattering phase shifts, and the rate for three-body recombination at threshold. We determine ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{*}$ for several 4He potentials from the calculated binding energy of the excited state of the trimer and use it to obtain the universality predictions for the other low-energy observables. We also use the calculated values for one potential to estimate the effective range corrections for the other potentials.
Systems, such as cold atoms and light halo nuclei, share universal features at low energies, for which details of inter-particle interactions are not essential.We study threebody physics in such systems in an effective-field-theory (EFT) framework.We will discuss universal behavior in three-body systems and higher-order effectiverange corrections beyond universality.We study effective-range effects perturbatively up to the next-to-next-to-leading order (N 2 LO) for the case of three identical bosons.We apply this analysis to recombination features in cold atomic gases and properties of Helium trimers.Effective range corrections also play an important role in the EFT study of fewnucleon systems and halo nuclei.The ground-state of Helium-6 can be treated as a two-neutron halo with an alpha core.This bound state is generated by the resonant neutron-neutron and neutron-alpha interactions.The latter is dominated by a shallow p-wave resonance.We present a calculation of Helium-6 in an EFT approach appropriate for halo systems.
We calculate energy levels of two and three bosons trapped in a harmonic oscillator potential with oscillator length aosc. The atoms are assumed to interact through a short-range potential with a scattering length a, and the short-distance behavior of the three-body wave function is characterized by a parameter $\ensuremath{\theta}$. For large positive a/aosc, the energies of states that, in the absence of the trap, correspond to three free atoms approach values independent of a and $\ensuremath{\theta}$. For other states, the $\ensuremath{\theta}$ dependence of the energy is strong, but the energy is independent of a for $|a/{a}_{\mathrm{o}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{c}}|\ensuremath{\gg}1$.