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arXiv:2503.21270 · Physical Review A

Three-body interactions in Rabi-coupled Bose gases: A perturbative approach

S. Tiengo, R. Eid, Thomas Bourdel

Published May 28, 2025• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In ultracold atomic gases, radio-frequency coupling between two spin states can lead to atoms being in a stable coherent superposition of the two states (dressed states). When the two-body interactions (scattering lengths) are different between the two states, it offers the possibility not only to control the interatomic interaction but also to modify the equation of states with emerging three-body terms with different signs and scalings with the parameters. We derive these terms in a unified perturbation framework and show that they correspond to genuine three-body processes found at different orders in perturbation theory. Our work justifies the introduction of contact three-body interactions in dressed-state systems when the spin degree of freedom is integrated out.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.111.053319

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In ultracold atomic gases, radio-frequency coupling between two spin states can lead to atoms being in a stable coherent superposition of the two states (dressed states). When the two-body interactions (scattering lengths) are different between the two states, it offers the possibility not only to control the interatomic interaction but also to modify the equation of states with emerging three-body terms with different signs and scalings with the parameters. We derive these terms in a unified perturbation framework and show that they correspond to genuine three-body processes found at different orders in perturbation theory. Our work justifies the introduction of contact three-body interactions in dressed-state systems when the spin degree of freedom is integrated out.
We propose and demonstrate the appearance of an effective attractive three-body interaction in coherently driven two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. It originates from the spinor degree of freedom that is affected by a two-body mean-field shift of the driven transition frequency. Importantly, its strength can be controlled with the Rabi-coupling strength and it does not come with additional losses. In the experiment, the three-body interactions are adjusted to play a predominant role in the equation of state of a cigar-shaped trapped condensate. This is confirmed through two striking observations: a downshift of the radial breathing mode frequency and the radial collapses for positive values of the dressed-state scattering length.
We investigate the possibility of using a Rabi drive to tune the interactions in an atomic Fermi gas. Specifically, we consider the scenario where two fermion species (spins) are Rabi coupled and interacting with a third uncoupled species. Using an exact calculation within a minimal low-energy model, we derive analytical expressions for the effective scattering length and effective range that characterize the collisions between a Rabi-dressed atom and an atom from the third species. In particular, we find that new scattering resonances emerge in the Rabi-coupled system, which we demonstrate are linked to the existence of hybrid two-body bound states. Furthermore, we show via a generalized Thouless criterion that the scattering properties have a direct impact on the superfluid transitions in the Rabi-coupled Fermi gas. The presence of Rabi-induced resonances thus has implications for the investigation of many-body physics with driven atomic gases.
We present a theoretical analysis of rf association of Efimov trimers in a two-component Bose gas with short-range interactions. Using the adiabatic hyperspherical formalism to solve the quantum three-body problem, we obtain universal expressions for three-body rf association rates as a function of the sss-wave scattering length a>0a>0a>0. We find that the association rates scale as ${a}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ in the limit of large aaa, and diverge as a3aad3{a}^{3}{a}_{ad}^{3}a3aad3​ whenever an Efimov state crosses the atom-dimer threshold (where aad{a}_{ad}aad​ stands for the atom-dimer scattering length). Our calculations show that trimer formation rates as large as $\ensuremath{\sim}101010{}^{\ensuremath{-}21}$ cm6{}^{6}6/s can be achieved with rf Rabi frequencies on the order of 1 MHz, suggesting that direct rf association is a powerful tool for making and probing few-body quantum states in ultracold atomic gases.
This thesis investigates two topics: ultracold atomic collisions in a radio-frequency field and universal properties of a degenerate unitary Bose gas. One interesting point of the unitary Bose gas is that the system has only one length scale, that is, the average interparticle distance. This single parameter determines all properties of the gas, which is called the universality of the system. We first introduce a renormalized contact interaction to extend the validity of the zero-range interaction to large scattering lengths. Then this renormalized interaction is applied to many-body theories to determined those universal relations of the system. From the few-body perspective, we discuss the scattering between atoms in a single-color radio-frequency field. Our motivation is proposing the radio-frequency field as an effective tool to control interactions between cold atoms. Such a technique may be useful in future experiments such as creating phase transitions in spinor condensates. We also discuss the formation of ultracold molecules using radio-freqency fields from a time-dependent approach.
Rabi-coupled spinor Bose-Einstein condensates, with competing intra-and interspecies interactions, enable independent control of two-and three-body interactions. We show that coupling can also drive the system into a strongly nonlinear regime of saturating interaction. More precisely, the equation of state interpolates between low-and high-density regimes described by two different two-body scattering lengths. Interestingly, the transition can be determined by the strength of the coupling. We experimentally demonstrate this saturation phenomenon by measurements of the interaction energy of a Bose-Einstein condensate as a function of the detuning and of the strength of the Rabi coupling in spin mixtures of potassium 39.
We develop the contact theory for spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gases. By using a perturbation method, we derive analytically the universal two-body behavior at short distance, which does not depend on the short-range details of interatomic potentials. We find that two new scattering parameters need to be introduced because of spin-orbit coupling, besides the traditional s- and p-wave scattering length (volume) and effective ranges. This is a general and unique feature for spin-orbit-coupled systems. Consequently, two new adiabatic energy relations with respect to the new scattering parameters are obtained, in which a new contact is involved because of spin-orbit coupling. In addition, we derive the asymptotic behavior of the large-momentum distribution, and find that the subleading tail is corrected by the new contact. This work paves the way for exploring the profound properties of spin-orbit-coupled many-body systems, according to two-body solutions.