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arXiv:2601.20762

A Zero-Range Model for the Efimov Effect in the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation

G. Basti, D. Ferretti, A. Teta

math-phquant-phSubmitted Jan 28, 2026• Announced Jan 29, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

In this note we discuss the Efimov effect emerging in a three-particle quantum system with zero-range interactions. In particular, we consider two non-interacting identical bosons plus a different lighter particle such that the interaction between a boson and the light particle is resonant. We also assume the validity of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Under these conditions, we show that the three-particle system exhibits infinitely many negative eigenvalues which accumulate at zero and satisfy the universal geometrical law characterising the Efimov effect. The result we find is a generalisation of previous results recently obtained in [13, 24].

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Journal of Physics Conference Series•Jul 7, 2014•1 citation
In this note we discuss the Efimov effect emerging in a three-particle quantum system with zero-range interactions. In particular, we consider two non-interacting identical bosons plus a different lighter particle such that the interaction between a boson and the light particle is resonant. We also assume the validity of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Under these conditions, we show that the three-particle system exhibits infinitely many negative eigenvalues which accumulate at zero and satisfy the universal geometrical law characterising the Efimov effect. The result we find is a generalisation of previous results recently obtained in [13, 24].
The possibility of a zero-energy Efimov effect is investigated in a model consisting of three identical heavy particles and a lighter one, when the light-heavy interaction leads to a zero-energy bound state for the two-heavy---one-light subsystem. The model is solved in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation with the light-heavy interaction taken to be a separable sss-wave potential of Yamaguchi form. The heavy-heavy interaction is short range and, if attractive, is to be taken weak enough to support no two- or three-heavy-particle bound states. The relevant parameter is the potential strength $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ of the light-heavy interaction which for $\ensuremath{\lambda}={\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}$ supports a single zero-energy light-heavy bound state. If the first zero-energy bound state of the two-heavy---one-light subsystem occurs for $\ensuremath{\lambda}={\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ such that $|{\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{\ensuremath{'}}|<|{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}|$, there are no Efimov four-body bound states. On the contrary, if the chosen heavy-heavy potential is repulsive enough to prevent the existence of three-body bound states for $|\ensuremath{\lambda}|<|{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}|$, then as $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}$ a few four-body Efimov states may emerge but their number remains finite. These states disappear for $|\ensuremath{\lambda}|\ensuremath{\gtrsim}|{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{c}|$ as the three-body cut overrides them.
Abstract We consider a system of three identical bosons in R3\mathbb {R}^3R3 R 3 with two-body zero-range interactions and a three-body hard-core repulsion of a given radius a>0 a > 0a>0 a > 0 . Using a quadratic form approach, we prove that the corresponding Hamiltonian is self-adjoint and bounded from below for any value of a . In particular, this means that the hard-core repulsion is sufficient to prevent the fall to the center phenomenon found by Minlos and Faddeev in their seminal work on the three-body problem in 1961. Furthermore, in the case of infinite two-body scattering length, also known as unitary limit, we prove the Efimov effect, i.e., we show that the Hamiltonian has an infinite sequence of negative eigenvalues EnE_nEn​ E n accumulating at zero and fulfilling the asymptotic geometrical law   En+1/En  →  e−2πs0    for   n→+∞\;E_{n+1} / E_n \; \rightarrow \; e^{-\frac{2\pi }{s_0}}\,\; \,\text {for} \,\; n\rightarrow +\infty En+1​/En​→e−s0​2π​forn→+∞ E n + 1 / E n → e - 2 π s 0 for n → + ∞ holds, where s0≈1.00624s_0\approx 1.00624s0​≈1.00624 s 0 ≈ 1.00624 .
We study the Born–Oppenheimer approximation of a mass-imbalanced three-body system made of two heavy particles of mass M and one light particle of mass m for arbitrary angular momentum. In this system, heavy-light pairs interact via a zero-range force. We construct the light-particle Hamiltonian using self-adjoint extensions of the two-center point interaction and show that the corresponding effective potential is regular at the coincidence point of the heavy particles. Consequently, this model presents an alternative method to finite-range, cutoff, or short-distance heavy-heavy regularizations: the necessary three-body input is encoded in the self-adjoint realization of the light-particle Hamiltonian, while the heavy-light interactions remain point-like. In the unitary limit, after fixing the characteristic length scale, we derive an explicit Efimov spectrum. Our results recover the zero-angular-momentum case of [] and provide a sufficient condition ensuring the absence of non-Efimov bound states. Away from unitarity, we show that the spatial size of the shallowest trimer near the threshold is approximately 2.8 times the heavy-light scattering length, in contrast with the common assumption that these two length scales coincide. We also derive a Bargmann-type bound on the number of three-body bound states and obtain an estimate sharper than previous results. Finally, we illustrate the method with numerical results for selected alkali mixtures.
Elementary demonstrations of the three-body Efimov effect are provided for several models involving a light particle and two heavy ones, and differing by the nature of the two-body (local or nonlocal) potentials which bind at zero energy the light particle to each of the heavy ones. The proofs rely on Born-Oppenheimer approximations, which are actually projections of the Hamiltonian into suitable subspaces, and they use the correct reduced mass. A numerical estimate of the long-range potential responsible for the accumulation of Efimov bound states is obtained through Pad\'e approximants.
Abstract We study a three-body system, formed by two identical heavy bosons and a light particle, in the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for an arbitrary dimension D . We restrict D to the interval 2 < D < 4, and derive the heavy–heavy D -dimensional effective potential proportional to 1/ R 2 ( R is the relative distance between the heavy particles), which is responsible for the Efimov effect. We found that the Efimov states disappear once the critical strength of the heavy–heavy effective potential 1/ R 2 approaches the limit − ( D − 2 ) 2 / 4 . We obtained the scaling function for the 133 Cs– 133 Cs– 6 Li system as the limit cycle of the correlation between the energies of two consecutive Efimov states as a function of D and the heavy-light binding energy E D 2 . In addition, we found that the energy of the ( N + 1)th excited state reaches the two-body continuum independently of the dimension D when E 2 D / E 3 ( N ) = 0.89 , where E 3 ( N ) is the N th excited three-body binding energy.
The Efimov effect is the appearance of an infinite tower of bound states, E n 3 , that accumulate in a geometrical way at zero energy in systems of three-identical bosons having an infinite large two-body scattering length a . In the zero-range limit the geometrical factor is E n +1 3 / E n 3 = e −2π/ s 0 with s 0 ≈ 1.00624 an universal number. The Efimov effect is the signature of the discrete scale invariance (DSI) present in these systems close to the unitary limit (1/ a = 0). The DSI constrains also the spectrum in N > 3 systems. In this contribution the two-level tree structure observed in bosons systems with N ≥ 4 will be discussed using potential models.