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Physical Review A

Stability chart of small mixed 4He−3He clusters

R. Guardiola, Jesús Navarro

Published Nov 14, 2003• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A stability chart of mixed ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ clusters has been obtained by means of the diffusion Monte Carlo method, using both the Aziz HFD-B and the Tang-Toennies-Yiu atom-atom interaction. The investigated clusters contain up to eight ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}$ atoms and up to 20 ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ atoms. One single ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}$ binds 20 ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ atoms, and two ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}$ bind 1, 2, 8, and more than 14 ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ atoms. All clusters with three or more ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}$ atoms are bound, although the combinations ${}^{4}{\mathrm{He}}_{3}^{3}{\mathrm{He}}_{9,10,11}$ and ${}^{4}{\mathrm{He}}_{4}^{3}{\mathrm{He}}_{9}$ are metastable. Clusters with 2, 8, and 20 ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ atoms are particularly stable and define magic ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ numbers.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.68.055201

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We have studied the stability of mixed 3He/4He clusters in L 1⁄4 0 \nand L 1⁄4 1 states by the diffusion Monte Carlo method, employing the Tang-Toennies-Yiu (TTY) He-He potential. The clusters 3He4HeM (L 1⁄4 0, S 1⁄4 12) and 3He2 4HeM (L 1⁄4 0, S 1⁄4 0) are stable for M >1, while to bind two 3He in a triplet state the minimum number of 4He is four. Considering clusters with three 3He, 3He3 4He4 is the smallest stable system in the L 1⁄4 1 state, while 3He3 4He8 is the smallest stable system in the L 1⁄4 0 state.
The existence of small helium clusters containing a variable number of 4He^{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}4He and 3He^{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He atoms is studied within a variational Monte Carlo calculation employing the Aziz HFD-B(HE) pair interaction. The clusters 4He2{^{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{2}4He2​ support one and two 3He^{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He atoms; however, the system with three 3He^{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He atoms is metastable, and the next bound system requires at least 18 fermions. All clusters obtained by adding 3He^{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He atoms to the trimer 4He3{^{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{3}4He3​ and the tetramer 4He4{^{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{4}4He4​ are bound, but the clusters 4He3{^{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{3}4He3​-3He3,4,5{^{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{3,4,5}3He3,4,5​ and 4He3,4{^{\mathrm{4}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{3,4}4He3,4​-3He9{^{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}}_{9}3He9​ are metastable. All remaining clusters with three or more bosons and any number of fermions are stable.
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