A thorough bound state analysis of the helium trimer is made using the Faddeev equations with form factors generated by a modified Kowalski–Feldman approach. The presence of Efimov states is manifested by each of the realistic potentials considered.
A comparison is made between the number of Efimov States present in 4He trimers as calculated using the Faddeev equations in the Faddeev coordinate-momentum approach with estimates predicted by N=(1/\ensuremath{\pi})ln(\ensuremath{\Vert}a\ensuremath{\Vert}/r0) using realistic phenomenological He-He potentials. It is found that there is good agreement for systems supporting few states and that agreement remains when the Efimov states are forced to disappear by mathematically altering the potentials.
Helium trimer bound states are calculated with a variational method described in terms of pair atom coordinates and distributed Gaussian functions by assuming zero total angular momentum. With the two-body interaction potential used, a weakly bound state for the dimer and only two bound states for the trimer are found. Although strictly speaking the first excited trimer state is not an Efimov state, we show that this state presents several characteristics of the Efimov behavior which are extensively discussed in the present work. Special emphasis is placed on the main geometrical configurations contributing to the two bound trimer states, and suggestions are made on the possible ways of experimentally detecting the Efimov-type state.
The Faddeev equations for the atomic helium-trimer systems are solved numerically with high accuracy both for the most sophisticated realistic potentials available and for simple phenomenological potentials. An efficient numerical procedure is described. The large-distance asymptotic behaviour, crucial for weakly bound three-body systems, is described almost analytically for arbitrary potentials. The Efimov effect is especially considered. The geometric structures of the bound states are quantitatively investigated. The accuracy of the schematic models and previous computations is comparable, i.e. within 20% for the spatially extended states and within 40% for the smaller -trimer ground state.
Exact solutions for the low-temperature helium dimer and trimer, 4He2 and 4He3, are derived, based on our $\ensuremath{\delta}$ function model for the interatomic potential. For the trimer, the Faddeev equations are shown to be separable in hyperspherical coordinates, with the S-wave alone giving an exact solution. The parameters ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}$ and r0 are fitted to accurate computations on the dimer and trimer. Excited states of the trimer are shown to exhibit the Efimov effect, whereby artificially reducing the strength of the two-body potential causes an infinite number of weakly-bound levels to condense out of the continuum. All the features anticipated by Efimov are quantitatively reproduced within our model. Since short-range details of the intermolecular forces are not relevant, our results can be considered to be universally applicable.