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arXiv:cond-mat/0412225 · Physical Review A

Three-body problem for ultracold atoms in quasi-one-dimensional traps

Christophe Mora, Reinhold Egger, Alexander O. Gogolin

Published May 9, 2005• 46 citations
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Abstract

We study the three-body problem for both fermionic and bosonic cold-atom gases in a parabolic transverse trap of length scale ${a}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. For this quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) problem, there is a two-body bound state (dimer) for any sign of the 3D scattering length $a$ and a confinement-induced scattering resonance. The fermionic three-body problem is universal and characterized by two atom-dimer scattering lengths ${a}_{\mathit{ad}}$ and ${b}_{\mathit{ad}}$. In the tightly bound ``dimer limit'' ${a}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}∕a\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, we find ${b}_{\mathit{ad}}=0$ and ${a}_{\mathit{ad}}$ is linked to the 3D atom-dimer scattering length. In the weakly bound ``BCS limit'' ${a}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}∕a\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\infty}$, a connection to the Bethe ansatz is established, which allows for exact results. The full crossover is obtained numerically. The bosonic three-body problem, however, is nonuniversal: ${a}_{\mathit{ad}}$ and ${b}_{\mathit{ad}}$ depend both on ${a}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}∕a$ and on a parameter ${R}^{*}$ related to the sharpness of the resonance. Scattering solutions are qualitatively similar to fermionic ones. We predict the existence of a single confinement-induced three-body bound state (trimer) for bosons.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.71.052705

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We solve the two-particle s-wave scattering problem for ultracold atom gases confined in arbitrary quasi-one-dimensional (1D) trapping potentials, allowing for two different atom species. As a consequence, the centre-of-mass and relative degrees of freedom do not factorize. We derive bound-state solutions and obtain the general scattering solution, which exhibits several resonances in the 1D scattering length induced by the confinement. We apply our formalism to two experimentally relevant cases: (i) interspecies scattering in a two-species mixture, and (ii) the two-body problem for a single species in a non-parabolic trap.
We study equilibrium properties of a cold two-component Fermi gas confined in a quasi-one-dimensional trap of the transverse size ${l}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. In the dilute limit ($n{l}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}\ensuremath{\ll}1$, where nnn is the 1D density) the problem is exactly solvable for an arbitrary 3D fermionic scattering length aF{a}_{F}aF​. When ${l}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}/{a}_{F}$ goes from $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\infty}$ to $+\ensuremath{\infty}$, the system successively passes three regimes: weakly interacting Fermi gas, hard core Bose gas, and weakly coupled Bose gas. The regimes are separated by two crossovers at ${a}_{F}\ensuremath{\sim}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}n{l}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{2}$. In conclusion, we discuss experimental implications of these results.
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