Quantum scattering in one dimension

A self-contained discussion of nonrelativistic quantum scattering is presented in the case of central potentials in one space dimension, which will facilitate the understanding of the more complex scattering theory in two and three dimensions. The present discussion illustrates in a simple way the concept of partial-wave decomposition, phase shift, optical theorem and effective-range expansion.Comment: 8 page

Conditions for the Thermal Instability in the Galactic Centre Mini-spiral region

We explore the conditions for the thermal instability to operate in the mini-spiral region of the Galactic centre (Sgr A*), where both the hot and cold media are known to coexist. The photoionisation Cloudy calculations are performed for different physical states of plasma. We neglect the dynamics of the material and concentrate on the study of the parameter ranges where the thermal instability may operate, taking into account the past history of Sgr A* bolometric luminosity. We show that the thermal instability does not operate at the present very low level of the Sgr A* activity. However, Sgr A* was much more luminous in the past. For the highest luminosity states the two-phase medium can be created up to 1.4 pc from the centre. The presence of dust grains tends to suppress the instability, but the dust is destroyed in the presence of strong radiation field and hot plasma. The clumpiness is thus induced in the high activity period, and the cooling/heating timescales are long enough to preserve later the past multi-phase structure. The instability enhances the clumpiness of the mini-spiral medium and creates a possibility of episodes of enhanced accretion of cold clumps towards Sgr A*. The mechanism determines the range of masses and sizes of clouds; under the conditions of Sgr A*, the likely values come out $1$ - $10^2M_{\oplus}$ for the cloud typical mass.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 7 figure

Efimov states in asymmetric systems

The conditions for occurrence of the Efimov effect is briefly described using hyperspherical coordinates. The strength of the effective hyperradial $\rho^{-2}$ potential appearing for two or three large scattering lengths is computed and discussed as function of two independent mass ratios of the three constituent particles. The effect is by far most pronounced for asymmetric systems with three very different masses. One Efimov state may by chance appear in nuclei. Many states could be present for systems with one electron and two neutral atoms or molecules. Estimates of the number of states and their sizes and energies are given.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Quantum Size Effect and Biased Diffusion of Gravitationally Bound Neutrons in a Rough Waveguide

A comprehensive theory of gravitational quantum states of ultracold neutrons in a rough waveguide is presented. The theory covers recent experiments in which the ultracold neutrons were beamed between a mirror and a rough scatterer and absorber. The results are in very good agreement with experimental data. The analysis is based on a recently developed theory of quantum transport in waveguides with rough absorbing and scattering walls. The calculation is done using two methods: an exact transport equation and a simplified model of biased scattering-driven diffusion of neutrons between quantum states. Both sets of results are in excellent agreement with each other. The exit neutron count is sensitive to the amplitude and the correlation radius (lateral size) of surface inhomogeneities and to the overall time of flight (length of the waveguide). The results indicate that it is possible to choose the waveguide parameters in such a way so to observe the quantum size effect in neutron count—the quantum steps that correspond to individual quantum states—even in a weak roughness regime. Away from the obvious limiting cases, the results are not very sensitive to the ratio of the particle energy to the absorption threshold. The main unresolved issue, which is related to a complexity of required calculations for a “real” experimental cell, is the lack of accurate information on the occupation numbers of neutrons entering the waveguide. Our analysis indicates that the initial occupancies of all gravitational states are expected to be the same except for the smallest values of the waveguide width

Weakly bound atomic trimers in ultracold traps

The experimental three-atom recombination coefficients of the atomic states $^{23}$Na$|F=1,m_F=-1>$, $^{87}$Rb$|F=1,m_F=-1>$ and $^{85}$Rb$|F=2,m_F=-2>$, together with the corresponding two-body scattering lengths, allow predictions of the trimer bound state energies for such systems in a trap. The recombination parameter is given as a function of the weakly bound trimer energies, which are in the interval $1<m(a/\hbar)^2 E_3< 6.9$ for large positive scattering lengths, $a$. The contribution of a deep-bound state to our prediction, in the case of $^{85}$Rb$|F=2,m_F=-2>$, for a particular trap, is shown to be relatively small.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Symmetric and asymmetric solitons in linearly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in optical lattices

We study spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system of two parallel quasi-one-dimensional traps, equipped with optical lattices (OLs) and filled with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The cores are linearly coupled by tunneling. Analysis of the corresponding system of linearly coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) reveals that spectral bandgaps of the single GPE split into subgaps. Symmetry breaking in two-component BEC solitons is studied in cases of the attractive (AA) and repulsive (RR) nonlinearity in both traps; the mixed situation, with repulsion in one trap and attraction in the other (RA), is considered too. In all the cases, stable asymmetric solitons are found, bifurcating from symmetric or antisymmetric ones (and destabilizing them), in the AA and RR systems, respectively. In either case, bi-stability is predicted, with a nonbifurcating stable branch, either antisymmetric or symmetric, coexisting with asymmetric ones. Solitons destabilized by the bifurcation tend to rearrange themselves into their stable asymmetric counterparts. The impact of a phase mismatch, between the OLs in the two cores is also studied. Also considered is a related model, for a binary BEC in a single-core trap with the OL, assuming that the two species (representing different spin states of the same atom) are coupled by linear interconversion. In that case, the symmetry-breaking bifurcations in the AA and RR models switch their character, if the inter-species nonlinear interaction becomes stronger than the intra-species nonlinearity.Comment: 21 pages + 24 figs, accepted to Phys. Rev.

Scaling limit of virtual states of triatomic systems

For a system with three identical atoms, the dependence of the $s-$wave virtual state energy on the weakly bound dimer and trimer binding energies is calculated in a form of a universal scaling function. The scaling function is obtained from a renormalizable three-body model with a pairwise Dirac-delta interaction. It was also discussed the threshold condition for the appearance of the trimer virtual state.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Effective Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equations for Cigar-Shaped and Disk-Shaped Fermi Superfluids at Unitarity

In the case of tight transverse confinement (cigar-shaped trap) the three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, describing superfluid Fermi atoms at unitarity (infinite scattering length $|a|\to \infty$), is reduced to an effective one-dimensional form by averaging over the transverse coordinates. The resultant effective equation is a 1D nonpolynomial Schrodinger equation, which produces results in good agreement with the original 3D one. In the limit of small and large fermion number $N$ the nonlinearity is of simple power-law type. A similar reduction of the 3D theory to a two-dimensional form is also performed for a tight axial confinement (disk-shaped trap). The resultant effective 2D nonpolynomial equation also produces results in agreement with the original 3D equation and has simple power-law nonlinearity for small and large $N$. For both cigar- and disk-shaped superfluids our nonpolynomial Schr\"odinger equations are quite attractive for phenomenological application.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Mean-field description of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates

We perform numerical simulation based on the time-dependent mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation to understand some aspects of a recent experiment by Donley et al. on the dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates of $^{85}$Rb atoms. They manipulated the atomic interaction by an external magnetic field via a Feshbach resonance, thus changing the repulsive condensate into an attractive one and vice versa. In the actual experiment they changed suddenly the scattering length of atomic interaction from positive to a large negative value on a pre-formed condensate in an axially symmetric trap. Consequently, the condensate collapses and ejects atoms via explosion. We find that the present mean-field analysis can explain some aspects of the dynamics of the collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 9 Latex pages, 10 ps and eps files, version accepted in Physical Review A, minor changes mad