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arXiv:2511.12538 · Scientific Reports

Small Clusters of $^4$He Atoms in Finite-Cutoff Effective Field Theory

Betzalel Bazak

cond-mat.quant-gasphysics.atom-phquant-phSubmitted Nov 16, 2025• Announced Nov 18, 2025• 0 citations• Revised Aug 20, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Nov 16, 2025v2 · Aug 20, 2026
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Abstract

Small clusters of $^4$He atoms are benchmark systems for universal few-body physics near the unitary limit. We study these systems using a finite-cutoff effective field theory calibrated to low-energy observables from the realistic LM2M2 potential. The chosen two-body cutoff reproduces both the atom--atom scattering length and effective range, while a regulated three-body interaction is adjusted to the trimer and tetramer ground-state energies. We distinguish total binding energies from the one-atom separation energies $S_A^*=B_A^*-B_{A-1}$ of the shallow excited states. Ground-state energies through $A=8$ are reproduced at the few-percent level, but threshold-sensitive observables are less accurate. In particular, the calculated tetramer separation energy is $S_4^*=2.85$~mK, compared with $0.92$--$0.96$~mK in converged LM2M2 calculations, and the atom--trimer scattering length differs substantially from modern LM2M2 benchmarks. For $A\ge5$, the available excited-state benchmarks are sparse and strongly method dependent. Comparison with another soft-core interaction suggests that the discrepancies primarily reflect short-distance physics and higher-order operators omitted from the finite-cutoff Hamiltonian rather than numerical convergence of the stochastic variational calculation. Finite-cutoff EFT therefore provides an efficient description of ground-state systematics, whereas shallow excited states and atom--cluster scattering require a controlled higher-order and cutoff-dependence analysis.

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Four-body systems are studied using an effective-field theory with two- and three-body contact interactions. A method to systematically address deep trimers (three-body bound states that are more tightly bound than four-body bound or resonant states) in four-body calculations is developed using a diagrammatic approach. Previous calculations were limited by the existence of deep trimers, which this work overcomes. For cold 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He atoms, binding energies of 526.1(5) and 128.517(1) mK are obtained at leading order for the tetramer ground and excited states, respectively, where errors come from the truncation of three-body partial waves. Tetramer binding energies and decay widths are also computed approaching the unitary limit. In the unitary limit, there are two tetramers associated with each trimer of binding energy B3(0){B}_{3}^{(0)}B3(0)​. The binding energy and decay width for the associated tetramer ground state are E4(0)=4.60(1)B3(0){E}_{4}^{(0)}=4.60(1){B}_{3}^{(0)}E4(0)​=4.60(1)B3(0)​ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{4}^{(0)}/2=0.0160(1){B}_{3}^{(0)}$, respectively, and for the associated tetramer excited state, E4(1)=1.0022(3)B3(0){E}_{4}^{(1)}=1.0022(3){B}_{3}^{(0)}E4(1)​=1.0022(3)B3(0)​ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{4}^{(1)}/2=2.57(2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}{B}_{3}^{(0)}$, respectively. This calculation is a gateway to higher-order and/or more-body calculations in nuclear and atomic systems.
In this paper, we investigate small clusters of helium atoms using the hyperspherical harmonic basis. We consider systems with A=2,3,4,5,6A=2,3,4,5,6A=2,3,4,5,6 atoms with an interparticle potential which does not present a strong repulsion at short distances. We use an attractive Gaussian potential that reproduces the values of the dimer binding energy, the atom-atom scattering length, and the effective range obtained with one of the widely used He-He interactions, the Aziz and Slaman potential, called LM2M2. In systems with more than two atoms, we consider a repulsive three-body force that, by construction, reproduces the trimer binding energy of the LM2M2 potential. With this model, consisting of the sum of a two- and three-body potential, we have calculated the spectrum of clusters formed by four, five, and six helium atoms. We have found that these systems present two bound states, one deep and one shallow, close to the threshold fixed by the energy of the $(A\ensuremath{-}1)$-atom system. Universal relations between the energies of the excited state of the AAA-atom system and the ground-state energy of the $(A\ensuremath{-}1)$-atom system are extracted, as well as the ratio between the ground state of the AAA-atom system and the ground-state energy of the trimer.
In a previous work [Phys. Rev. A 85, 022502 (2012)] we calculated, with the use of the Gaussian expansion method for few-body systems, the energy levels and spatial structures of the 4{}^{4}4He trimer and tetramer ground and excited states using the LM2M2 potential, which has a very strong short-range repulsion. In this work, we calculate the same quantities using the currently most accurate 4{}^{4}4He-4{}^{4}4He potential [Przybytek et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 183003 (2010)] that includes the adiabatic, relativistic, QED, and residual retardation corrections. Contributions of the corrections to the tetramer ground-(excited-) state energy $\ensuremath{-}573.90\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(\ensuremath{-}132.70)$ mK are respectively $\ensuremath{-}4.13\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(\ensuremath{-}1.52)$ mK, +9.37(+3.48)+9.37\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(+3.48)+9.37(+3.48) mK, $\ensuremath{-}1.20\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(\ensuremath{-}0.46)$ mK, and +0.16(+0.07)+0.16\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(+0.07)+0.16(+0.07) mK. Further including other realistic 4{}^{4}4He potentials, we calculated the binding energies of the trimer and tetramer ground and excited states, B3(0),B3(1),B4(0){B}_{3}^{(0)},\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{B}_{3}^{(1)},\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{B}_{4}^{(0)}B3(0)​,B3(1)​,B4(0)​, and B4(1){B}_{4}^{(1)}B4(1)​, respectively. We found that the four kinds of the binding energies for the different potentials exhibit perfect linear correlations between any two of them over the range of binding energies relevant for 4{}^{4}4He atoms (namely, six types of the generalized Tjon lines are observed). The dimerlike-pair model for 4{}^{4}4He clusters, proposed in the previous work, predicts a simple interaction-independent relation B4(1)B2=B3(0)B2+23\frac{{B}_{4}^{(1)}}{{B}_{2}}=\frac{{B}_{3}^{(0)}}{{B}_{2}}+\frac{2}{3}B2​B4(1)​​=B2​B3(0)​​+32​, which precisely explains the correlation between the tetramer excited-state energy and the trimer ground-state energy, with B2{B}_{2}B2​ being the dimer binding energy.
Four-body system of 4He{}^4\mathrm{He}4He atoms: Dimer-dimer scattering
The strong short-range repulsion, characteristic to realistic interatomic potentials, complicates the description of weakly-bound few-body systems such as those of \He atoms. The present work proposes an approach for solving this problem and applies it to a realistic system of four 4He{}^4\mathrm{He}4He atoms. The potential is gradually softened such that rigorous four-body equations for bound and scattering tates can be accurately solved in the momentum-space framework, and the results are extrapolated back to the limit of the original potential. Linear correlations between three- and four body quantities are observed, and the accuracy of the procedure is improved by extrapolating in one of the three-body quantities. Results for the 4He{}^4\mathrm{He}4He tetramer ground and excited state binding energies and atom-trimer scattering agree well with at least some of earlier determinations and shed light on the existing disagreements. An additional case of the Phillips correlation line is established for the dimer-dimer scattering length. The trimer production rate via the ultracold two-dimer collisions is estimated, it exhibits significant finite-range effects despite the weak binding of the dimer.