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Molecular Physics

A model search for Efimov states

S. Geltman

Published Jul 10, 2007• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A search for Efimov states is carried out in terms of a one-dimensional model three-body problem. A numerically exact solution is obtained that allows scanning through the resonance condition. No evidence is found for the existence of an infinite number of such bound three-body states. It is deduced from one-dimensional results that such an infinity of bound states should also not arise in a complete three-dimensional calculation.

DOI
10.1080/00268970701496540

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A search for Efimov states is carried out in terms of a one-dimensional model three-body problem. A numerically exact solution is obtained that allows scanning through the resonance condition. No evidence is found for the existence of an infinite number of such bound three-body states. It is deduced from one-dimensional results that such an infinity of bound states should also not arise in a complete three-dimensional calculation.
We revisit the problem of three identical bosons in free space, which exhibits a universal hierarchy of bound states (Efimov trimers). Modeling a narrow Feshbach resonance within a two-channel description, we map the integral equation for the three-body scattering amplitude to a one-dimensional Schrödinger-type single-particle equation, where an analytical solution of exponential accuracy is obtained. We give exact results for the trimer binding energies, the three-body parameter, the threshold to the three-atom continuum, and the recombination rate.
Introducing a suitable cutoff parameter r0{r}_{0}r0​ for the effective potential in the three-body subsystem, we show that the number of four-body bound states is roughly $k\mathrm{ln}[\ensuremath{\epsilon}a({r}_{0})]$, where $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ is a momentum cutoff and $\frac{2}{3\ensuremath{\pi}}\ensuremath{\le}k\ensuremath{\le}\frac{1}{3}$, if the scattering length a(r0)a({r}_{0})a(r0​) for a two-body bound state and a third particle tends to infinity. In a numerical calculation we found that the value ${r}_{0}\ensuremath{\approx}1.82$ fm, which provides a sufficiently resonant effective interaction in the three-body subsystem, is independent of the applied two-body potentials within the numerical accuracy.NUCLEAR REACTIONS Efimov effect.
We calculate the three-body spectrum for identical bosons interacting via attractive 1/r21/r^21/r2 potentials. We have found an infinite number of three-body states even when the pair interactions are too weak to support any two-body states. These new states thus share this surprising scenario with the Efimov effect, but are not themselves Efimov states. Our effect occurs for both identical bosons and identical fermions, and it persists in the presence of two-body bound states.
The Efimov phenomenon manifests itself as an emergent discrete scaling symmetry in the quantum three-body problem. In the unitarity limit, it leads to an infinite tower of three-body bound states with energies forming a geometric sequence. In this work, we study the evolution of these so-called Efimov states using relativistic scattering theory. We identify them as poles of the three-particle SSS matrix in the complex energy plane, and we study how they transform from virtual states through bound states to resonances when we change the interaction strength. We dial the scattering parameters toward the unitarity limit and observe the emergence of the universal scaling of energies and couplings---a behavior known from the nonrelativistic case. We additionally find that Efimov resonances follow unusual, cyclic trajectories accumulating at the three-body threshold and then disappear at some values of the two-body scattering length. We propose a partial resolution to this ``missing states'' problem.
Efimov's prediction more than three decades ago that three-body bound states can exist when the pairwise attractions do not bind or only support weakly bound states of a pair, has remained unconfirmed till just the past year. This lecture provides the pedagogical background for recent work on Efimov states in neutron-rich nuclei done with I. Mazumdar (TIFR) and V. S. Bhasin (Delhi University), and published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 062503 (2006). Both these nuclear systems and recent observations of cold cesium atoms provide the first clear evidence for the existence of Efimov states.
Armed with a new solution to the four-body problem, we reanalyze the recent Innsbruck observation of an Efimov resonance in three-body collisions of cesium atoms, and show that it provides evidence of new, universal four-body physics as well. Our theoretical treatment of four bosonic atoms in the limit of strong two-body attraction suggests a ubiquitous result: namely, that resonantly-bound states of all four atoms should occur whenever the two-body scattering length is a specific fraction (0.43) of the value where a three-body Efimov resonance occurs. A hitherto unanalyzed feature in the 2006 Innsbruck experiment supports this universal prediction, and it provides the first known evidence to date that a direct four-body recombination process plays a role. While we confirm the conclusion reached previously by some studies that no true Efimov effect exists for four particles, we demonstrate the existence of a universal class of four-body states that are intimately connected with three-body Efimov states.