The Bethe–Salpeter equation for three bosons with zero-range interaction is solved for the first time. For comparison the light-front equation is also solved. The input is the two-body scattering length and the outputs are the three-body binding energies, Bethe–Salpeter amplitudes and light-front wave functions. Three different regimes are analyzed: ( i ) For weak enough two-body interaction the three-body system is unbound. ( ii ) For stronger two-body interaction a three-body bound state appears. It provides an interesting example of a deeply bound Borromean system. ( iii ) For even stronger two-body interaction this state becomes unphysical with a negative mass squared. However, another physical (excited) state appears, found previously in light-front calculations. The Bethe–Salpeter approach implicitly incorporates three-body forces of relativistic origin, which are attractive and increase the binding energy.
The Bethe–Salpeter equation for three bosons with zero-range interaction is solved for the first time. For comparison the light-front equation is also solved. The input is the two-body scattering length and the outputs are the three-body binding energies, Bethe–Salpeter amplitudes and light-front wave functions. Three different regimes are analyzed: ( i ) For weak enough two-body interaction the three-body system is unbound. ( ii ) For stronger two-body interaction a three-body bound state appears. It provides an interesting example of a deeply bound Borromean system. ( iii ) For even stronger two-body interaction this state becomes unphysical with a negative mass squared. However, another physical (excited) state appears, found previously in light-front calculations. The Bethe–Salpeter approach implicitly incorporates three-body forces of relativistic origin, which are attractive and increase the binding energy.
We investigate one-dimensional three-body systems composed of two identical bosons and one mass-imbalanced atom (impurity) with attractive two-body and three-body zero-range interactions. In the absence of three-body interaction, we give a complete phase diagram of the number of three-body bound states in the whole region of mass ratio and the ratio of intra- and intercomponent interaction strength via direct calculation of Skornyakov-Ter-Martirosyan equations. We demonstrate that other low-lying three-body bound states emerge when the mass of the impurity particle is different from other two identical particles. We obtain the binding energies together with the corresponding wave functions. When the mass of impurity atom is very large, there are at most three three-body bound states. In the presence of three-body zero-range interaction, we reveal that weak three-body interaction will not always induce one more three-body bound state. At some special parameter points, arbitrary small three-body interaction can generate one more three-body bound state. This corresponds to the transition of the number of three-body bound states induced only by two-body attractive interaction.
Abstract We investigate the two lowest-lying weakly bound states of N ≤ 8 bosons as functions of the strength of two-body Gaussian interactions. We observe the limit for validity of Efimov physics. We calculate energies and second radial moments as functions of scattering length. For identical bosons we find that two ( N − 1 ) -body states appear before the N -body ground states become bound. This pattern ceases to exist for N ≥ 7 where the size of the ground state becomes smaller than the range of the two-body potential. All mean-square-radii for N ≥ 4 remain finite at the threshold of zero binding, where they vary as ( N − 1 ) p with p = − 3 / 2 , − 3 for ground and excited states, respectively. Decreasing the mass of one particle we find stronger binding and smaller radii. The identical particles form a symmetric system, while the lighter particle is further away in the ground states. In the excited states we find the identical bosons either surrounded or surrounding the light particle for few or many bosons, respectively. We demonstrate that the first excited states for all strengths resemble two-body halos of one particle weakly bound to a dense N -body system for N = 3, 4. This structure ceases to exist for N ≥ 5 .
We study the wave function φ(3) of three identical bosons scattering at zero energy, zero total momentum, and zero orbital angular momentum in two dimensions, interacting via short-range potentials with a finite two-body scattering length a. We derive asymptotic expansions of φ(3) in two regimes: the 111-expansion, where all three pairwise distances are large, and the 21-expansion, where one particle is far from the other two. In the 111-expansion, the leading term grows as ln3(B/a) at large hyperradius B=(s12+s22+s32)/2. At order B−2ln−3(B/a), we identify a three-body parameter D with dimension of length squared, which we term the three-body scattering area. This quantity should be contrasted with the three-body scattering area previously studied for infinite or vanishing two-body scattering length. If the two-body interaction is attractive and supports bound states, D acquires a negative imaginary part, and we derive its relation to the probability amplitudes for the production of two-body bound states in three-body collisions. Under weak modifications of the interaction potentials, we derive the corresponding shift of D in terms of φ(3) and the changes of the two-body and three-body potentials. We also study the effects of D and φ(3) on three-body and many-body physics, including the three-body ground-state energy in a large periodic volume, the many-body energy and the three-body correlation function of the dilute two-dimensional Bose gas, and the three-body recombination rates of two-dimensional ultracold atomic Bose gases.
The momentum space zero-range model is used to investigate universal properties of three interacting particles confined to two dimensions. The pertinent equations are first formulated for a system of two identical and one distinct particle and the two different two-body subsystems are characterized by two-body energies and masses. The three-body energy in units of one of the two-body energies is a universal function of the other two-body energy and the mass ratio. We derive convenient analytical formulae for calculations of the three-body energy as a function of these two independent parameters and exhibit the results as universal curves. In particular, we show that the three-body system can have any number of stable bound states. When the mass ratio of the distinct to identical particles is greater than 0.22, we find that at most two stable bound states exist, while for two heavy and one light mass an increasing number of bound states is possible. The specific number of stable bound states depends on the ratio of two-body bound state energies and on the mass ratio, and we map out an energy–mass phase diagram of the number of stable bound states. Realizable systems of both fermions and bosons are discussed in this framework.
We have investigated S-wave bound states composed of three identical bosons interacting via regulated delta function potentials in non-relativistic quantum mechanics. For low-energy systems, these short-range potentials serve as an approximation to the underlying physics, leading to an effective field theory. A method for perturbatively expanding the three-body bound-state equation in inverse powers of the cutoff is developed. This allows us to extract some analytical results concerning the behavior of the system. Further results are obtained by solving the leading order equations numerically to 11 or 12 digits of accuracy. The limit-cycle behavior of the required three-body contact interaction is computed, and the cutoff-independence of bound-state energies is shown. By studying the relationship between the two- and three-body binding energies, we obtain a high accuracy numerical calculation of Efimov's universal function. Equations for the first order corrections, necessary for the study of cutoff dependence, are derived. However, a numerical solution of these equations is not attempted.