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arXiv:1210.3230 · Physical Review A

Universal three-body parameter in ultracold 4 He *

Steven Knoop, Joseph Steven Borbely, W. Vassen, S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans

Published Dec 17, 2012• 31 citations
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Abstract

We have analyzed our recently measured three-body loss rate coefficient for a Bose-Einstein condensate of spin-polarized metastable triplet ${}^{4}$He atoms in terms of Efimov physics. The large value of the scattering length for these atoms, which provides access to the Efimov regime, arises from a nearby potential resonance. We find the loss coefficient to be consistent with the three-body parameter (3BP) found in alkali-metal experiments, where Feshbach resonances are used to tune the interaction. This provides evidence for a universal 3BP outside the group of alkali-metal elements. In addition, we give examples of other atomic systems without Feshbach resonances but with a large scattering length that would be interesting to analyze once precise measurements of three-body loss are available.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.062705

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We have analyzed our recently measured three-body loss rate coefficient for a Bose-Einstein condensate of spin-polarized metastable triplet 4{}^{4}4He atoms in terms of Efimov physics. The large value of the scattering length for these atoms, which provides access to the Efimov regime, arises from a nearby potential resonance. We find the loss coefficient to be consistent with the three-body parameter (3BP) found in alkali-metal experiments, where Feshbach resonances are used to tune the interaction. This provides evidence for a universal 3BP outside the group of alkali-metal elements. In addition, we give examples of other atomic systems without Feshbach resonances but with a large scattering length that would be interesting to analyze once precise measurements of three-body loss are available.
Recent measurements of Efimov resonances for a number of ultracold atom species have revealed an unexpected universality, in which three-body scattering properties are determined by the van der Waals length of the two-body interaction potential. To investigate whether this universality extends to heteronuclear mixtures, we measure loss rate coefficients in an ultracold trapped gas of 40K and 87Rb atoms. We find an Efimov-like resonance in the rate of inelastic collisions between 40K87Rb Feshbach molecules and 87Rb atoms. However, we do not observe any Efimov-related resonances in the rates of inelastic collisions between three atoms. These observations are compared to previous measurements by the LENS group of Efimov resonances in a 41K and 87Rb mixture as well as to recent predictions.
In Efimov physics, a three-body parameter (3BP), previously regarded as nonuniversal, uniquely defines bound and scattering properties of three particles. A universal 3BP, however, has been recently shown in experiments and theory in ultracold homonuclear gases. Our present study further predicts a universal 3BP for heteronuclear atomic systems near broad Feshbach resonances and provides physical interpretations for its origin. We show that for a system composed of two light and one heavy atom, the physical origin of the universal 3BP is similar to the homonuclear case, while for systems composed by one light and two heavy atoms, the universality of the 3BP is now mostly controlled by the heavy-heavy interatomic properties. This new universality is explained by the universal properties of the van der Waals interactions in a simple Born-Oppenheimer picture. Finally, we show the numerically determined 3BPs for some combinations of alkali atoms used in ultracold experiments.
Universality is a fundamental property of diverse few-body systems such as atomic nuclei, simple molecules or ultracold atoms. It is related to a peculiar quantum mechanical phenomenon which was discovered by Russian theoretician Vitaly Efimov in the early 1970-s. A consequence of his prediction was the existence of an infinite number of bound energy levels for three particles even if a short-range two-body potential is just not deep enough to bind two particles together. This counterintuitive discovery attracted a great deal of interest but lacked an experimental verification for many years. Difficulties in finding a system where the inter-particle potential can be changed easily were answered recently with the experimental demonstration of Feshbach resonances in ultracold atoms. In the limit of zero collision energy the two-body interactions are determined by a single parameter, the scattering length a, which is defined by the low energy s-wave scattering phase-shift. In the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance this parameter diverges and thus can be readily tuned to large values and different signs by an experimentally easy-to-use change of the external magnetic field. A universal behavior is expected when a becomes the largest length scale in the system. In this case the three-body observables depend only on the scattering length and on a three-body parameter which serves as a boundary condition for the short range physics. The first experimental evidence for the existence of Efimov quantum states was reported in 2006 in a system of ultracold Cs atoms by the Innsbruck group. They investigated three-body recombination induced loss of atoms from a shallow optical trap and showed the enhancement of this loss at certain values of the scattering length. It was
A new narrow three-atom loss resonance associated with an Efimov trimer crossing the three-atom threshold has recently been discovered in a many-body system of ultracold 6Li^{6}\mathrm{Li}6Li atoms in the three lowest hyperfine spin states at a magnetic field near 895 G. O'Hara and coworkers have used measurements of the three-body recombination rate in this region to determine the complex three-body parameter associated with Efimov physics. Using this parameter as the input, we calculate the universal predictions for the spectrum of Efimov states and for the three-body recombination rate in the universal region above 600 G where all three scattering lengths are large. We predict an atom-dimer loss resonance at $672\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2$ G associated with an Efimov trimer disappearing through an atom-dimer threshold. We also predict an interference minimum in the three-body recombination rate at $759\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ G where the three-spin mixture may be sufficiently stable to allow experimental study of the many-body system.
Three-body loss resonances associated with heavy-heavy-light Efimov states have been observed for over a decade in ultracold mixtures tuned near interspecies Feshbach resonances. For light-light-heavy systems, observing such resonances has been far more challenging due to the substantially large Efimov spacing. In these Efimov-unfavored systems, the intraspecies scattering length aBB{a}_{\text{BB}}aBB​ has been shown to significantly affect the overall Efimov scenario, namely, the positions of the Efimov resonances ${a}_{\ensuremath{-}}^{(n)}$ and the three-body parameter (3BP) ${a}_{\ensuremath{-}}^{(0)}$. The present article explains the origin behind this influence by highlighting two primary mechanisms via which both the magnitude and sign of aBB{a}_{\text{BB}}aBB​ govern the Efimov spectrum and set the resulting 3BP ${a}_{\ensuremath{-}}^{(0)}$. By employing van der Waals interactions for 23Na240K{^{23}\mathrm{Na}}_{2}^{40}\mathrm{K}23Na240​K, we attribute the vital role of aBB{a}_{\text{BB}}aBB​ in Efimov-unfavored systems to the large difference between the Efimov scaling parameters for two and three resonant interactions, s0{s}_{0}s0​ and s0∗{s}_{0}^{*}s0∗​. In particular, we account for the unusually large ${a}_{\ensuremath{-}}^{(0)}$ obtained in light-light-heavy systems with aBB>0{a}_{\text{BB}}>0aBB​>0 (e.g., 41K287Rb{^{41}\mathrm{K}}_{2}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}41K287​Rb), and show that the first Efimov resonance can still occur at an experimentally accessible value when aBB<0{a}_{\text{BB}}<0aBB​<0.
Three interacting particles form a system which is well known for its complex physical behavior. A landmark theoretical result in few-body quantum physics is Efimov's prediction of a universal set of weakly bound trimer states appearing for three identical bosons with a resonant two-body interaction. Surprisingly, these states even exist in the absence of a corresponding two-body bound state and their precise nature is largely independent of the particular type of the two-body interaction potential. Efimov's scenario has attracted great interest in many areas of physics; an experimental test however has not been achieved. We report the observation of an Efimov resonance in an ultracold thermal gas of cesium atoms. The resonance occurs in the range of large negative two-body scattering lengths and arises from the coupling of three free atoms to an Efimov trimer. We observe its signature as a giant three-body recombination loss when the strength of the two-body interaction is varied near a Feshbach resonance. This resonance develops into a continuum resonance at non-zero collision energies, and we observe a shift of the resonance position as a function of temperature. We also report on a minimum in the recombination loss for positive scattering lengths, indicating destructive interference of decay pathways. Our results confirm central theoretical predictions of Efimov physics and represent a starting point from which to explore the universal properties of resonantly interacting few-body systems.