We investigate finite-range effects in systems with three identical bosons. We calculate recombination rates and bound state spectra using two different finite-range models that have been used recently to describe the physics of cold atomic gases near Feshbach resonances where the scattering length is large. The models are built on contact potentials which take into account finite-range effects; one is a two-channel model and the other is an effective range expansion model implemented through the boundary condition on the three-body wavefunction when two of the particles are at the same point in space. We compare the results with the results of the ubiquitous single-parameter zero-range model where only the scattering length is taken into account. Both finite-range models predict variations of the well-known geometric scaling factor 22.7 that arises in Efimov physics. The threshold value at negative scattering length for creation of a bound trimer moves to higher or lower values depending on the sign of the effective range compared to the location of the threshold for the single-parameter zero-range model. Large effective ranges, corresponding to narrow resonances, are needed for the reduction to have any noticeable effect.
We investigate finite-range effects in systems with three identical bosons. We calculate recombination rates and bound state spectra using two different finite-range models that have been used recently to describe the physics of cold atomic gases near Feshbach resonances where the scattering length is large. The models are built on contact potentials which take into account finite-range effects; one is a two-channel model and the other is an effective range expansion model implemented through the boundary condition on the three-body wavefunction when two of the particles are at the same point in space. We compare the results with the results of the ubiquitous single-parameter zero-range model where only the scattering length is taken into account. Both finite-range models predict variations of the well-known geometric scaling factor 22.7 that arises in Efimov physics. The threshold value at negative scattering length for creation of a bound trimer moves to higher or lower values depending on the sign of the effective range compared to the location of the threshold for the single-parameter zero-range model. Large effective ranges, corresponding to narrow resonances, are needed for the reduction to have any noticeable effect.
A nonrelativistic system of three identical particles will display a rich set of universal features known as Efimov physics if the scattering length a is much larger than the range l of the underlying two-body interaction. An appropriate effective theory facilitates the derivation of both results in the $\ensuremath{\mid}a\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit and finite-l∕a corrections to observables of interest. Here we use such an effective-theory treatment to consider the impact of corrections linear in the two-body effective range, rs, on the three-boson bound-state spectrum and recombination rate for $\ensuremath{\mid}a\ensuremath{\mid}⪢\ensuremath{\mid}{r}_{s}\ensuremath{\mid}$. We do this by first deriving results appropriate to the strict limit $\ensuremath{\mid}a\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ in coordinate space. We then extend these results to finite a using once-subtracted momentum-space integral equations. We take the cutoff on these equations to be large compared to $1∕\ensuremath{\mid}{r}_{s}\ensuremath{\mid}$, and find that the first-order effects of $\ensuremath{\mid}{r}_{s}\ensuremath{\mid}$ are independent of the cutoff in this regime. We also discuss the implications of our results for experiments that probe three-body recombination in Bose-Einstein condensates near a Feshbach resonance.
Few-body effects play an important role for the understanding of ultracold quantum gases. We make use of an effective field theory approach to investigate various aspects of universal few-body physics close to a Feshbach resonance. That is the regime where the scattering length is large compared to all other length scales of the system and thus determines the observables. It is also the regime where the Efimov effect whose main characteristic is the occurrence of a sequence of three-body bound states becomes important. At unitarity, i.e., for diverging scattering length, the ratio of binding energies of neighboring states approaches a constant. The existence of those trimers can be captured by a single three-body parameter and influences observables such as recombination rates. Starting from adequate Lagrangians, we derive atom-dimer scattering amplitudes that contain all information of interest about the three-particle systems. With this method, we first investigate the scattering of atoms and dimers at finite temperature in the presence of the Efimov effect. We calculate the dimer relaxation rate and obtain good agreement with available experimental data. Furthermore, heteronuclear mixtures exhibiting large interspecies scattering length are studied in detail. If bosons are the majority species, the Efimov effect occurs in an S-wave channel and we are able to compute three-body recombination and dimer relaxation rates. The results are compared to the outcome of two existing experiments. For mainly fermionic systems, the Efimov effect is only present in an overall P-wave and three-body recombination at threshold vanishes. However, in mixtures of atoms and dimers, scattering cross sections and dimer relaxation show the typical Efimov behavior of log-periodicity. We also consider two-dimensional Bose gases, where the Efimov effect does not occur. For those systems, we derive an equation including the first non-universal corrections and deduce three-body observables such as binding energies and atom-dimer scattering parameters.
We revisit the problem of three identical bosons in free space, which exhibits a universal hierarchy of bound states (Efimov trimers). Modeling a narrow Feshbach resonance within a two-channel description, we map the integral equation for the three-body scattering amplitude to a one-dimensional Schrödinger-type single-particle equation, where an analytical solution of exponential accuracy is obtained. We give exact results for the trimer binding energies, the three-body parameter, the threshold to the three-atom continuum, and the recombination rate.
We construct a simple model to calculate the trimer bound state energy ET(n) and three-body recombination rate K30 of three identical bosons with van der Waals interaction without using any two- or three-body fitting parameter. Using this simple model, we investigate the influence of the van der Waals finite-range effect on ET(n) and K30. Our calculation shows that the finite-range effect leads to the ground trimer state energy ET(0) not crossing the atom-dimer threshold, and the scaled three-body recombination rate K30/a4 deviating from the universal three-body theory. The results of our simple model agree within a few percent with other theoretical works with van der Waals interaction and also the experimental data.
Using potential models, we analyze range corrections to the universal law dictated by the Efimov theory of three bosons. In the case of finite-range interactions, we have observed that at first order, it is necessary to supplement the theory with one finite-range parameter ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{n}^{3}$ for each specific n level [A. Kievsky and M. Gattobigio, Phys. Rev. A 87, 052719 (2013)]. The value of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{n}^{3}$ depends on the way the potentials are changed to tune the scattering length toward the unitary limit. In this work, we analyze a particular path in which the length ${r}_{B}=a\ensuremath{-}{a}_{B}$, measuring the difference between the two-body scattering length a and the energy-scattering length aB, is almost constant. Analyzing systems with very different scales, such as atomic or nuclear systems, we observe that the finite-range parameter remains almost constant along the path with a numerical value of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{0}^{3}\ensuremath{\approx}0.87$ for the ground-state level. This observation suggests the possibility of constructing a single universal function that incorporates finite-range effects for this class of paths. The result is used to estimate the three-body parameter ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{*}$ in the case of real atomic systems brought to the unitary limit through broad Feshbach resonances. Furthermore, we show that the finite-range parameter can be put in relation to the two-body contact C2 at the unitary limit.
We calculate shallow three-body bound states in the universal regime, defined by Efimov, with inclusion of both scattering length and effective range parameters. We find corrections to the universal scaling laws for large binding energies. For narrow resonances we find a distinct nonmonotonic behavior of the threshold at which the lowest Efimov trimer merges with the three-body continuum. The origin of the three-body parameter is related to the two-body atom-atom interactions in a physically clear model. Our results demonstrate that experimental information from narrow Feshbach resonances and/or mixed systems are of vital importance to pin down the relation of two- and three-body physics in atomic systems.