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arXiv:2104.07565 · Physics Letters B

Two particles with zero-range interaction in a magnetic field

Johannes Kirscher, Brian C. Tiburzi

Published Jun 23, 2021• 1 citation
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Abstract

Energy levels are investigated for two charged particles possessing an attractive, momentum-independent, zero-range interaction in a uniform magnetic field. A transcendental equation governs the spectrum, which is characterized by a collective Landau-level quantum number incorporating both center-of-mass and relative degrees of freedom. Results are obtained for a system of one charged and one neutral particle, with the interaction chosen to produce a bound state in vanishing magnetic field. Beyond deriving the weak-field expansion of the energy levels, we focus on non-perturbative aspects. In the strong-field limit, or equivalently for a system in the unitary limit, a single bound level with universal binding energy exists. By contrast, excited states are resonances that disappear into the continuum as the magnetic field is raised beyond critical values. A hyperbola is derived that approximates the number of bound levels as a function of the field strength remarkably well.

DOI
10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136462

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Energy levels are investigated for two charged particles possessing an attractive, momentum-independent, zero-range interaction in a uniform magnetic field. A transcendental equation governs the spectrum, which is characterized by a collective Landau-level quantum number incorporating both center-of-mass and relative degrees of freedom. Results are obtained for a system of one charged and one neutral particle, with the interaction chosen to produce a bound state in vanishing magnetic field. Beyond deriving the weak-field expansion of the energy levels, we focus on non-perturbative aspects. In the strong-field limit, or equivalently for a system in the unitary limit, a single bound level with universal binding energy exists. By contrast, excited states are resonances that disappear into the continuum as the magnetic field is raised beyond critical values. A hyperbola is derived that approximates the number of bound levels as a function of the field strength remarkably well.
This paper considers the possibility that two charged particles with an attractive short-ranged potential between them which is not strong enough to form bound states in free space, may bind in uniform magnetic fields. It is shown that in the formal limit where Coulomb repulsion is negligible ($q\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{and}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{B}_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{with}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}q{B}_{0}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{fixed}$, where qqq is the charge and B0{B}_{0}B0​ the field strength) there always exists a bound state for a system of two identical charged particles in a constant magnetic field, provided that there is a short-range uniformly attractive potential between them. Moreover, it is shown that in this limit any potential with an attractive s-wave scattering length will possess bound states provided that the range of the potential is much smaller than the characteristic magnetic length, ${r}_{0}\ensuremath{\equiv}(\frac{q{B}_{0}}{4}){}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$. For this case, the binding is computed numerically. We estimate the size of the magnetic field needed to approximately reach a regime where the formal limit considered becomes a good approximation to the dynamics. These numerical estimates indicate that two protons in an extremely strong magnetic field such as might be found in a magnetar will bind to form a diproton.
We study some aspects of the quantum theory of a charged particle moving in a time-independent, unidirectional magnetic field. When the field is uniform, we make a few clarifying remarks on the use of angular momentum eigenstates and momentum eigenstates with the diamagnetism of a free electron gas as an example. When the field is nonuniform but weakly varying, we discuss both perturbative and nonperturbative methods for studying a quantum mechanical system. As an application, we derive the quantized energy levels of a charged particle in a Helmholtz coil, which go over to the usual Landau levels in the limit of a uniform field.
A comprehensive universal description of the rotational-vibrational spectrum for two identical particles of mass m and a third particle of mass m 1 in the zero-range limit of the interaction between different particles is given for arbitrary values of the mass ratio m/m 1 and the total angular momentum L. It is found that the number of vibrational states is determined by the functions L c(m/m 1) and L b(m/m 1). Explicitly, if the two-body scattering length is positive, the number of states is finite for L c(m/m 1) ≤ L ≤ L b(m/m 1), zero for L > L b(m/m 1), and infinite for L < L c(m/m 1). If the two-body scattering length is negative, the number of states is zero for L ≥ L c(m/m 1) and infinite for L < L c(m/m 1). For the finite number of vibrational states, all the binding energies are described by the universal function ɛLN(m/m 1) = (ξ, η), where ξ = (N − 1/2)/√L(L + 1), η = √m/[m 1 L(L + 1)], and N is the vibrational quantum number. This scaling dependence is in agreement with the numerical calculations for L > 2 and only slightly deviates from those for L = 1, 2. The universal description implies that the critical values L c(m/m 1) and L b(m/m 1) increase as 0.401 √m/m 1 and 0.563 √m/m 1, respectively, while the number of vibrational states for L ≥ L c(m/m 1) is within the range N ≤ N max ≈ 1.1√L(L + 1) + 1/2.
A many-boson model is formulated and expressions for its exact eigenstates and energies are obtained for both an arbitrary finite and an infinite number of bosons. The Hamiltonian of the model contains interactions between bosons whose momenta have equal magnitudes but opposite directions. The matrix elements of this interaction are taken to be a constant over a range of momenta surrounding k = 0. The ground state of the 2N-particle system is shown to be a product of N pair-creation operators acting on the vacuum state. Each of these pair-creation operators depends upon one of N parameters which are called pair energies. The N pair energies are shown to satisfy a coupled system of nonlinear algebraic equations. The energy of the state is the sum of the pair energies and the occupation probabilities of the single-particle levels are given as simple functions of the pair energies. Similar results are derived for the excited states of the system and for the states of an odd number of particles. These results are valid for both a repulsive and an attractive interaction, since they only depend upon the form of the interaction. The equations are solved algebraically for two model systems. The first of these is one whose single-particle kinetic energy takes on only one value. The equations for this system are solved for an arbitrary interaction strength and it is shown that the pair energies are proportional to the zeros of certain Laguerre polynomials. The second system is one in which the single-particle kinetic energy can take on two values. The equations for this system are solved in the strong repulsive-interaction limit and it is shown that the pair energies are proportional to the zeros of certain Jacobi polynomials. The excitation energies of this second system are shown to be proportional to 1/n and the occupations of the two single-particle levels in the ground state are shown to be proportional to n, where n is the total number of particles. For a repulsive interaction and an arbitrary single-particle spectrum, the algebraic equations for the pair energies are converted into an approximate integral equation for the density of roots which is accurate to order 1/n. This integral equation is solved for a strong interaction which, in the context of this model, means an interaction whose strength is greater than a constant times 1/V⅔ in the limit of a large volume. From this solution, the following results are obtained: (1) the lowest two single-particle levels have occupations of order n; (2) the excitation spectrum is that of a set of noninteracting quasiparticles; and (3) the quasiparticle spectrum has two zeros corresponding to the lowest two single-particle levels. Apart from the presence of two zeros, the quasiparticle spectrum does not differ significantly from that of the noninteracting particles.
We study charged particles in three dimensions interacting via a short-range potential in addition to the Coulomb potential. When the Bohr radius and the scattering length are much larger than the potential range, low-energy physics of the system becomes independent from details of the short-range potential. We develop the zero-range theory to describe such universal physics in terms of the Bohr radius and the scattering length by generalizing the Bethe-Peierls boundary condition, which is then applied to two charged particles to reveal their bound states and resonances. Infinite resonances are found for a repulsive Coulomb potential, one of which turns into a bound state with increasing inverse scattering length, whereas infinite bound states exist for an attractive Coulomb potential with no resonances at any scattering length. The zero-range theory is also applied to three equally charged particles at infinite scattering length under the variational Born-Oppenheimer approximation. We find that the effective potential between two heavy particles induced by a light particle is an inverse-square attraction at distances shorter than the Bohr radius, leading to infinite deep bound states, whereas shallow ones successively turn into resonances with increasing Coulomb repulsion.
We study few-body bound states of charged particles subject to attractive zero-range/short-range plus repulsive Coulomb interparticle forces. The characteristic length scales of the system at zero energy are set by the Coulomb length scale D and the Coulomb-modified effective range reff. We study shallow bound states of charged particles with D≫reff and show that these systems obey universal scaling laws different from neutral particles. An accurate description of these states requires both the Coulomb-modified scattering length and the effective range unless the Coulomb interaction is very weak (D→∞). Our findings are relevant for bound states whose spatial extent is significantly larger than the range of the attractive potential. These states enjoy universality – their character is independent of the shape of the short-range potential.