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arXiv:1705.10860 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Few-body physics in resonantly interacting ultracold quantum gases

José P D’Incao

Published Dec 12, 2017• 92 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We provide a general discussion on the importance of three-body Efimov physics for strongly interacting ultracold quantum gases. Using the adiabatic hyperspherical representation, we discuss a universal classification of three-body systems in terms of the attractive or repulsive character of the effective interactions. The hyperspherical representation leads to a simple and conceptually clear picture for the bound and scattering properties of three-body systems with strong s -wave interactions. Using our universal classification scheme, we present a detailed discussion of all relevant ultracold three-body scattering processes using a pathway analysis that makes evident the importance of Efimov physics in determining the energy and scattering length dependence of such processes. This article provides a general overview of the current status of the field and a discussion of various issues relevant to the lifetime and stability of ultracold quantum gases along with universal properties of ultracold, resonantly interacting, few-body systems.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/aaa116

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Abstract We provide a general discussion on the importance of three-body Efimov physics for strongly interacting ultracold quantum gases. Using the adiabatic hyperspherical representation, we discuss a universal classification of three-body systems in terms of the attractive or repulsive character of the effective interactions. The hyperspherical representation leads to a simple and conceptually clear picture for the bound and scattering properties of three-body systems with strong s -wave interactions. Using our universal classification scheme, we present a detailed discussion of all relevant ultracold three-body scattering processes using a pathway analysis that makes evident the importance of Efimov physics in determining the energy and scattering length dependence of such processes. This article provides a general overview of the current status of the field and a discussion of various issues relevant to the lifetime and stability of ultracold quantum gases along with universal properties of ultracold, resonantly interacting, few-body systems.
We find that universal three-body physics extends beyond the threshold regime to non-zero energies. For ultracold atomic gases with a negative two-body s-wave scattering length near a Feshbach resonance, we show that the resonant peaks characteristic of Efimov physics persist in three-body recombination to higher collision energies. For this and other inelastic processes, we use the adiabatic hyperspherical representation to derive universal analytical expressions for their dependence on the scattering length, the collision energy and—for narrow resonances—the effective range. These expressions are supported by full numerical solutions of the Schrödinger equation and display log-periodic dependence on energy characteristic of Efimov physics. This dependence is robust and might be used to experimentally observe several Efimov features.
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 discuss several issues important for experimentally observing Efimov physics in ultracold quantum gases. By numerically solving the three-boson Schrödinger equation over a broad range of scattering lengths and energies, and by including model potentials with multiple bound states, we address the complications of relating experimental observations to available analytic expressions. These more realistic potentials introduce features that can mask the predicted Efimov physics at small scattering lengths. They also allow us to verify that positive and negative scattering lengths are universally connected only across a pole, not across a zero. Additionally, we show that the spacing between Efimov features for the relatively small scattering lengths accessible experimentally fails to precisely follow the geometric progression expected for Efimov physics. Finally, we emphasize the importance of the short-range three-body physics in determining the position of Efimov features and show that theoretically reproducing two-body physics is not generally sufficient to predict three-body properties quantitatively.
Three oriented bosonic dipoles are treated by using the hyperspherical adiabatic representation, providing numerical evidence that the Efimov effect persists near a two-dipole resonance and in a system where angular momentum is not conserved. Our results further show that the Efimov features in scattering observables become universal, with a known three-body parameter; i.e., the resonance energies depend only on the two-body physics, which also has implications for the universal spectrum of the four-dipole problem. Moreover, the Efimov states should be long-lived, which is favorable for their creation and manipulation in ultracold dipolar gases. Finally, deeply bound two-dipole states are shown to be relatively stable against collisions with a third dipole, owing to the emergence of a repulsive interaction originating in the angular momentum nonconservation for this system.
Abstract Optical trapping techniques allow for the formation of bosonic condensates with internal degrees of freedom, so-called spinor condensates. Mean-field models of spinor condensates highlight the sensitivity of the quantum phases of the system to the relative strength of the two-body interaction in the different spin-channels. Such a description captures the regime where these interactions are weak. In the opposite and largely unexplored regime of strongly correlated spinor condensates, three-body interactions can play an important role through the Efimov effect, producing possible novel phases. Here, we study the three-body spinor problem using the hyperspherical adiabatic representation for spin-1, -2 and -3 condensates in the strongly-correlated regime. We characterize the Efimov physics for such systems and the relevant three-body mean-field parameters. We find that the Efimov effect can strongly affect the spin dynamics and three-body mean-field contributions to the possible quantum phases of the condensate through universal contributions to scattering observables.
A universal characterization of interactions in few- and many-body quantum systems is often possible without detailed description of the interaction potential, and has become a defacto assumption for cold atom research. Universality in this context is defined as the validity to fully characterize the system in terms of two-body scattering length. We discuss universality in the following three contexts: closed-channel dominated Feshbach resonance, Efimov physics near Feshbach resonances, and corrections to the mean field energy of Bose-Einstein condensates with large scattering lengths. Novel experimental tools and strategies are discussed to study universality in ultracold atomic gases: dynamic control of interactions, run-away evaporative cooling in optical traps, and preparation of few-body systems in optical lattices.