From few- to many-body quantum physics

Nikolaj Thomas Zinner

Hui Zhai

Robert Sinclair MacKay

Sergej Moroz

In this thesis nonrelativistic few-body quantum physics is investigated with the method of functional renormalization. In particular, we discuss different theoretical aspects of few-body physics related to the Efimov effect. Our central finding is that this effect manifests itself as a renormalization group limit cycle. First, we treat the problem of a singular, inverse square potential in quantum mechanics. Then we examine the original Efimov problem of three particles interacting via a short-range two-body potential. Subsequently, we present a first step towards the renormalization group solution of the four-body quantum problem for bosons. Finally, a general theoretical feature of the Efimov physics, composite operators with complex scaling dimensions, are discussed.

Robert Sinclair MacKay

Marcelo Takeshi Yamashita

These notes were written for a set of three lectures given in a school at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in October/2017 before the workshop Critical Stability of Quantum Few-Body Systems. These lectures are primarily dedicated to the students and represent a very idiosyncratic vision of the author, mainly in the last part of the text related to applications. These notes are only a tentative to show a technique, among many others, to solve problems in a very rich area of the contemporary physics - the Few-Body Physics - many times unknown by a considerable part of the students.