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arXiv:1706.07700 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Three-particle quantization condition in a finite volume: 1. The role of the three-particle force

H.‐W. Hammer, Jin-Yi Pang, Akaki Rusetsky

Published Sep 1, 2017• 166 citations
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Abstract

Using non-relativistic effective Lagrangians in the particle-dimer picture, we rederive the expression for the energy shift of a loosely bound three-particle bound state of identical bosons in the unitary limit. The effective field theory formalism allows us to explicitly investigate the role of the three-particle force. Moreover, we discuss relaxing the unitary limit of infinite scattering length and demonstrate a smooth transition from the weakly bound three-particle state to a two-particle bound state of a particle and a deeply bound dimer.

DOI
10.1007/jhep09(2017)109

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Using non-relativistic effective Lagrangians in the particle-dimer picture, we rederive the expression for the energy shift of a loosely bound three-particle bound state of identical bosons in the unitary limit. The effective field theory formalism allows us to explicitly investigate the role of the three-particle force. Moreover, we discuss relaxing the unitary limit of infinite scattering length and demonstrate a smooth transition from the weakly bound three-particle state to a two-particle bound state of a particle and a deeply bound dimer.
In this work, three-body bound states were studied in finite volume using an Effective Field Theory framework. The finite volumes under consideration are cubic volumes with periodic boundary conditions. The Effective Field Theory framework used in this work employs only contact interactions and is particularly well suited for studies of universal properties, i.e. properties independent of the details of the interaction on short distances. A particular example in the three-body sector is the Efimov effect, the emergence of a geometrically spaced bound state spectrum. In the first part, systems of three identical bosons are investigated. As a consequence of the breakdown of the spherical symmetry to cubic symmetry, the partial waves of the bound state amplitude are coupled. An infinite set of coupled integral equations for these partial waves is derived. These equations have to be solved numerically in order to obtain the binding energies in the finite volume. The dependence of the energies on the box size is calculated and the results are explicitly verified to be renormalized. Results for positive and negative scattering lengths are shown. The effects of higher partial waves are investigated. The behavior of shallow trimers near the dimer energy as well as deeply bound trimers is studied. The shallowest state investigated crosses the dimer energy at a certain volume and behaves like a scattering state for smaller volumes. Numerical evidence for a universal scaling of the finite volume corrections is provided. Subsequently, the formalism is extended to systems of three nucleons. This case provides the main motivation for this work due to its applicability to Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) calculations of the triton. Such calculations always take place inside a finite volume which makes control over the corresponding effects crucial for an understanding of results from the lattice. For the triton, there are two coupled channels already in the infinite volume corresponding to two different spin-isospin combinations. An infinite set of coupled integral equations for the partial waves of the bound state amplitudes is derived. The renormalization of all results is again explicitly verified. The physical triton inside a finite volume is investigated as well as the triton spectrum for unphysical pion masses. The former case qualitatively shows the same behavior as the three-boson case, and the volume dependence is calculated. The smallest volumes investigated are of the order of magnitude typical for present day Lattice calculations. The motivation for the latter part is twofold. On the one hand, Lattice QCD calculations are performed at pion masses larger than the physical one for computational reasons. On the other hand, it has been conjectured that QCD is close to the critical trajectory for an infrared renormalization group limit cycle, in which case the Efimov effect would occur for a critical pion mass. Close to this critical pion mass, the triton has excited states. The behavior of the ground state and of the excited states inside a finite volume is investigated for various pion masses around the critical one. The excited states cross the energy of the bound di-nucleon, as it was already observed for the shallowest bosonic trimer. The results for the ground state were used to provide strong numerical evidence for a universal scaling of the finite volume corrections.
We discuss the three-body properties of identical bosons exhibiting large scattering length in two spatial dimensions. Within an effective field theory for resonant interactions, we calculate the leading nonuniversal corrections from the two-body effective range to bound-state and scattering observables. In particular, we compute the three-body binding energies, the boson-dimer scattering properties, and the three-body recombination rate for finite energies. We find significant effective range effects for three-body observables in the vicinity of the unitary limit. The implications of this result for future experiments are briefly discussed.
The volume-dependence of a shallow three-particle bound state in the cubic box with a size LLL is studied. It is shown that, in the unitary limit, the energy-level shift from the infinite-volume position is given by ΔE=c(κ2/m) (κL)−3/2∣A∣2exp⁡(−2κL/3)\Delta E=c (\kappa^2/m)\,(\kappa L)^{-3/2}|A|^2 \exp(-2\kappa L/\sqrt{3})ΔE=c(κ2/m)(κL)−3/2∣A∣2exp(−2κL/3​), where κ\kappaκ is the bound-state momentum and ∣A∣2|A|^2∣A∣2 denotes the three-body analog of the asymptotic normalization constant, which encodes the information about the short-range interactions in the three-body system.
In the low-energy limit, non-relativistic particles with short-range interactions exhibit universal behavior that is largely independent of microscopic details. This universality is typically described by effective field theory, in which the two-body interaction is renormalized to a single parameter-the scattering length. For systems of identical bosons, the three-body problem reveals the Efimov effect, a novel phenomenon proposed that necessitates the introduction of an additional three-body parameter. However, the exact relation between this three-body parameter, the coupling constants in the effective field theory, and the binding energies of Efimov states remains unresolved. In this Letter, we address this question through a comprehensive analysis of the Skorniakov-Ter-Martirosian equation with a finite cutoff. We establish an exact renormalization relation for the three-body parameter and determine its connection to the energies of Efimov bound states. These results are validated through high-precision numerical simulations. We expect our findings to be of fundamental interest across various fields, including atomic, nuclear, condensed matter, and particle physics, and to have broad applications in both few-body and many-body physics.
The universal properties of a three-boson system with large scattering length are well understood within the framework of Effective Field Theory. They include a geometric spectrum of shallow three-body bound states called “Efimov states” and log-periodic dependence of scattering observables on the scattering length. We investigate the modification of this spectrum in a finite cubic box using a partial wave expansion. The dependence of the binding energies on the box size is calculated for systems with positive and negative two-body scattering length. We compare the full results to results obtained using an expansion around the infinite volume binding energy. The renormalization of the Effective Field Theory in the finite volume is verified explicitly.
Three-boson Efimov physics is well known in the bound-state regime, but far less in the three-particle continuum at negative two-particle scattering length where Efimov states evolve into resonances. They are studied solving rigorous three-particle scattering equations for transition operators in the momentum space. The dependence of the three-boson resonance energy and width on the two-boson scattering length is studied with several force models. The universal limit is determined numerically considering highly excited states; simple parametrizations for the resonance energy and width in terms of the scattering length are established. Decreasing the attraction, the resonances rise not much above the threshold but broaden rapidly and become physically unobservable, evolving into subthreshold resonances. Finite-range effects are studied and related to those in the bound-state regime.