1. Highlight “short-ranged,” “dilute,” and “low-energy” as three main features of interactions between ultracold atoms. 2. Introduce the important concept of the phase shift. 3. Introduce the $s$-wave scattering length as a universal parameter describing the low-energy interaction between ultracold atoms. 4. Discuss the relation between divergent scattering length, low-energy bound state, and jump of phase shift. 5. Discuss the relation between the scattering length and the scattering amplitude. 6. Discuss under what condition a positive scattering length describes repulsive interaction. 7. Discuss the condition when an algebraically decayed potential can be treated as a finite range one. 8. Introduce two types of zero-range single-channel potentials to capture the universal low-energy $s$-wave interaction between ultracold atoms. 9. Introduce the concept of renormalization condition and renormalizable theory. 10. Discuss how the spin rotational symmetry imposes constraints on interaction form for both alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms. 11. Introduce Feshbach resonance as an important tool to tune scattering length. 12. Compare the two-channel Feshbach resonance with the single-channel shape resonance and compare the wide and the narrow resonances. 13. Introduce a zero-range two-channel model. 14. Introduce the confinement-induced resonance to tune interaction strength by an external potential. 15. Summarize three key conditions for a Feshbach resonance, and unify the optical Feshbach resonance, the orbital Feshbach resonance, and the confinement-induced resonance all in terms of these three conditions. 16. Introduce the Efimov effect as an important three-body effect at the vicinity of the two-body scattering resonance. 17. Highlight the symmetry aspect of the Efimov effect. 18. Discuss various connections between few-body and many-body physics. 19. Illustrate that few-body calculation can be used to determine properties of many-body systems by using high-temperature expansion as an example.
Highlight “short-ranged,” “dilute,” and “low-energy” as three main features of interactions between ultracold atoms. 2. Introduce the important concept of the phase shift. 3. Introduce the s-wave scattering length as a universal parameter describing the low-energy interaction between ultracold atoms. 4. Discuss the relation between divergent scattering length, low-energy bound state, and jump of phase shift. 5. Discuss the relation between the scattering length and the scattering amplitude. 6. Discuss under what condition a positive scattering length describes repulsive interaction. 7. Discuss the condition when an algebraically decayed potential can be treated as a finite range one. 8. Introduce two types of zero-range single-channel potentials to capture the universal low-energy s-wave interaction between ultracold atoms. 9. Introduce the concept of renormalization condition and renormalizable theory. 10. Discuss how the spin rotational symmetry imposes constraints on interaction form for both alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms. 11. Introduce Feshbach resonance as an important tool to tune scattering length. 12. Compare the two-channel Feshbach resonance with the single-channel shape resonance and compare the wide and the narrow resonances. 13. Introduce a zero-range two-channel model. 14. Introduce the confinement-induced resonance to tune interaction strength by an external potential. 15. Summarize three key conditions for a Feshbach resonance, and unify the optical Feshbach resonance, the orbital Feshbach resonance, and the confinement-induced resonance all in terms of these three conditions. 16. Introduce the Efimov effect as an important three-body effect at the vicinity of the two-body scattering resonance. 17. Highlight the symmetry aspect of the Efimov effect. 18. Discuss various connections between few-body and many-body physics. 19. Illustrate that few-body calculation can be used to determine properties of many-body systems by using high-temperature expansion as an example.
We study ultracold gases of alkali-metal atoms in the quantum degenerate regime. The interatomic interactions in these type of systems can be tuned using resonances induced by magnetic or electric fields. The tunability of the interactions, together with the possibility of confining the atoms with several kinds of external potentials, allows for a completely novel approach to study basic problems in many-body physics, and moreover, allows to enter regimes which have never been accessible in condensed matter or nuclear physics. For example, this has led to the experimental demonstration of an intimate relation between two types of superfluidity: the crossover from Bose-Einstein condensation of tightly bound molecules to the superfluid behavior related to weakly bound BCS-like pairs. Another experimental landmark was reached when the existence of universal Efimov three-body bound states was proven in experiments with ultracold bosonic cesium atoms. In this thesis, we study several aspects of these strongly interacting and ultracold atomic gases. We develop an analytical model that encapsulates all of the relevant scattering physics in atomic systems where open-channel shape resonances and closedchannel Feshbach resonances give rise to complicated and non-trivial scattering properties. This model provides lots of physical insight and is shown to describe important quantities, such as the molecular energies and scattering phase shifts, with a high level of accuracy. The model is compared to full numerical coupled-channel calculations in two atomic systems: rubidium and lithium. We study the BCS-BEC crossover using a many-body description of the ultracold gas that includes the non-trivial energy dependence of the scattering model. We show that it gives rise to superfluid behavior associated with the formation of BCS-like pairs while the low-energy interactions are repulsive in character. The energy dependence of the interactions is crucial, as it gives rise to attractive interactions at the Fermi energy, necessary for the formation of Cooper pairs. We demonstrate new ways of controlling the interatomic interactions using a combination of magnetic and electric fields. This leads to experimental control of, for instance, the three-body parameter in the context of Efimov physics and of non-universal behavior in the BCS-BEC crossover in fermionic gases. Using a four-body method based on first principles, we solve the molecule-molecule scattering problem to calculate several important properties of bosonic and fermionic Summary 145 molecules that consist of light and heavy atoms. These type of molecules are of current experimental interest, and we predict several exciting relations between three- and four-body observables in these type of systems.
In this undergraduate thesis, we discuss the two-body quantum mechanical problem of two ultra- cold bosonic atoms at low energy limit, interacting through a square potential with and without an external confinement. The two-body s-wave scattering length is introduced in terms of the radial wavefunction. In free space with no confinement, the interaction-scattering length relation is calculated and compared in 3- and 1-dimensions; we show the recurring resonance regions where the scattering length diverges and the existence of dimer bound state with positively large scattering length. Lastly, in the case of a 3-dimensional isotropic harmonic confinement, again under the ultracold limit, we obtain the universal (s-state) energy spectrum of the two atoms in terms of the scattering length.
Few-body effects play an important role for the understanding of ultracold quantum gases. We make use of an effective field theory approach to investigate various aspects of universal few-body physics close to a Feshbach resonance. That is the regime where the scattering length is large compared to all other length scales of the system and thus determines the observables. It is also the regime where the Efimov effect whose main characteristic is the occurrence of a sequence of three-body bound states becomes important. At unitarity, i.e., for diverging scattering length, the ratio of binding energies of neighboring states approaches a constant. The existence of those trimers can be captured by a single three-body parameter and influences observables such as recombination rates. Starting from adequate Lagrangians, we derive atom-dimer scattering amplitudes that contain all information of interest about the three-particle systems. With this method, we first investigate the scattering of atoms and dimers at finite temperature in the presence of the Efimov effect. We calculate the dimer relaxation rate and obtain good agreement with available experimental data. Furthermore, heteronuclear mixtures exhibiting large interspecies scattering length are studied in detail. If bosons are the majority species, the Efimov effect occurs in an S-wave channel and we are able to compute three-body recombination and dimer relaxation rates. The results are compared to the outcome of two existing experiments. For mainly fermionic systems, the Efimov effect is only present in an overall P-wave and three-body recombination at threshold vanishes. However, in mixtures of atoms and dimers, scattering cross sections and dimer relaxation show the typical Efimov behavior of log-periodicity. We also consider two-dimensional Bose gases, where the Efimov effect does not occur. For those systems, we derive an equation including the first non-universal corrections and deduce three-body observables such as binding energies and atom-dimer scattering parameters.
A universal characterization of interactions in few- and many-body quantum systems is often possible without detailed description of the interaction potential, and has become a defacto assumption for cold atom research. Universality in this context is defined as the validity to fully characterize the system in terms of two-body scattering length. We discuss universality in the following three contexts: closed-channel dominated Feshbach resonance, Efimov physics near Feshbach resonances, and corrections to the mean field energy of Bose-Einstein condensates with large scattering lengths. Novel experimental tools and strategies are discussed to study universality in ultracold atomic gases: dynamic control of interactions, run-away evaporative cooling in optical traps, and preparation of few-body systems in optical lattices.
We calculate shallow three-body bound states in the universal regime, defined by Efimov, with inclusion of both scattering length and effective range parameters. We find corrections to the universal scaling laws for large binding energies. For narrow resonances we find a distinct nonmonotonic behavior of the threshold at which the lowest Efimov trimer merges with the three-body continuum. The origin of the three-body parameter is related to the two-body atom-atom interactions in a physically clear model. Our results demonstrate that experimental information from narrow Feshbach resonances and/or mixed systems are of vital importance to pin down the relation of two- and three-body physics in atomic systems.
Efimov physics in ultracold gases is described very well by the universal scaling laws, based on the scattering length and van der Waals length. The first can be tuned magnetically via a Feshbach resonance, the second is constant and connected to the radial range of the potential.However, experimental hints at non-universal behavior, when going away from resonance, are quite badly understood. The next leading coefficient in the scattering phase shift, the effective range parameter, gives an indication of this non-universality, but at the same time it can also be strongly dependent on the magnetic field. Moreover, higher-order terms take over quickly when increasing the collision energy. We show how the finite range corrections can be understood by making the connection to more fundamental parameters of the two-body physics, and use this description to derive a better criterion for entering the non-universal regime.