Condensates of Strongly-interacting Atoms and Dynamically Generated Dimers

In a system of atoms with large positive scattering length, weakly-bound diatomic molecules (dimers) are generated dynamically by the strong interactions between the atoms. If the atoms are modeled by a quantum field theory with an atom field only, condensates of dimers cannot be described by the mean-field approximation because there is no field associated with the dimers. We develop a method for describing dimer condensates in such a model based on the one-particle-irreducible (1PI) effective action. We construct an equivalent 1PI effective action that depends not only on the classical atom field but also on a classical dimer field. The method is illustrated by applying it to the many-body behavior of bosonic atoms with large scattering length at zero temperature using an approximation in which the 2-atom amplitude is treated exactly but irreducible $N$-atom amplitudes for $N \ge 3$ are neglected. The two 1PI effective actions give identical results for the atom superfluid phase, but the one with a classical dimer field is much more convenient for describing the dimer superfluid phase. The results are also compared with previous work on the Bose gas near a Feshbach resonance.Comment: 10 figure

Linear correlations between 4He trimer and tetramer energies calculated with various realistic 4He potentials

In a previous work [Phys. Rev. A 85, 022502 (2012)] we calculated, with the use of our Gaussian expansion method for few-body systems, the energy levels and spatial structure of the 4He trimer and tetramer ground and excited states using the LM2M2 potential, which has a very strong short-range repulsion. In this work, we calculate the same quantities using the presently most accurate 4He-4He potential [M. Przybytek et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 183003 (2010)] that includes the adiabatic, relativistic, QED and residual retardation corrections. Contributions of the corrections to the tetramer ground-(excited-)state energy, -573.90 (-132.70) mK, are found to be, respectively, -4.13 (-1.52) mK, +9.37 (+3.48) mK, -1.20 (-0.46) mK and +0.16 (+0.07) mK. Further including other realistic 4He potentials, we calculated the binding energies of the trimer and tetramer ground and excited states, B_3^(0), B_3^(1), B_4^(0) and B_4^(1), respectively. We found that the four kinds of the energies for the different potentials exhibit perfect linear correlations between any two of them over the range of binding energies relevant for 4He atoms (namely, six types of the generalized Tjon lines are given). The dimerlike-pair model for 4He clusters, proposed in the previous work, predicts a simple universal relation B_4^(1)/B_2 =B_3^(0)/B_2 + 2/3, which precisely explains the correlation between the tetramer excited-state energy and the trimer ground-state energy, with B_2 being the dimer binding energy.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, published version in Phys. Rev. A85, 062505 (2012), Figs. 2, 5, and 6 added, minor changes in the description of the dimerlike-pair mode

Energy spectra of small bosonic clusters having a large two-body scattering length

In this work we investigate small clusters of bosons using the hyperspherical harmonic basis. We consider systems with $A=2,3,4,5,6$ particles interacting through a soft inter-particle potential. In order to make contact with a real system, we use an attractive gaussian potential that reproduces the values of the dimer binding energy and the atom-atom scattering length obtained with one of the most widely used $^4$He-$^4$He interactions, the LM2M2 potential. The intensity of the potential is varied in order to explore the clusters' spectra in different regions with large positive and large negative values of the two-body scattering length. In addition, we include a repulsive three-body force to reproduce the trimer binding energy. With this model, consisting in the sum of a two- and three-body potential, we have calculated the spectrum of the four, five and six particle systems. In all the region explored, we have found that these systems present two bound states, one deep and one shallow close to the $A-1$ threshold. Some universal relations between the energy levels are extracted; in particular, we have estimated the universal ratios between thresholds of the three-, four-, and five-particle continuum using the two-body gaussia

When a DNA Triple helix melts: An analog of the Efimov state

The base sequences of DNA contain the genetic code and to decode it a double helical DNA has to open its base pairs. Recent studies have shown that one can use a third strand to identify the base sequences without opening the double helix but by forming a triple helix. It is predicted here that such a three chain system exhibits the unusual behaviour of the existence of a three chain bound state in the absence of any two being bound. This phenomenon is analogous to the Efimov state in three particle quantum mechanics. A scaling theory is used to justify the Efimov connection. Real space renormalization group (RG), and exact numerical calculations are used to validate the prediction of a biological Efimov effect.Comment: Replaced by the (almost) published version, except the word "curiouser

Dimer-atom scattering between two identical fermions and a third particle

We use the diagrammatic $T$-matrix approach to analyze the three-body scattering problem between two identical fermions and a third particle (which could be a different species of fermion or a boson). We calculate the s-wave dimer-atom scattering length for all mass ratios, and our results exactly match the results of Petrov. In particular, we list the exact dimer-atom scattering lengths for all available two-species Fermi-Fermi and Bose-Fermi mixtures. In addition, unlike that of the equal-mass particles case where the three-body scattering $T$-matrix decays monotonically as a function of the outgoing momentum, we show that, after an initial rapid drop, this function changes sign and becomes negative at large momenta and then decays slowly to zero when the mass ratio of the fermions to the third particle is higher than a critical value (around 6.5). As the mass ratio gets higher, modulations of the $T$-matrix become more apparent with multiple sign changes, related to the "fall of a particle to the center" phenomenon and to the emergence of three-body Efimov bound states.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, and 2 table

The structure of the atomic helium trimers: Halos and Efimov states

The Faddeev equations for the atomic helium-trimer systems are solved numerically with high accuracy both for the most sophisticated realistic potentials available and for simple phenomenological potentials. An efficient numerical procedure is described. The large-distance asymptotic behavior, crucial for weakly bound three-body systems, is described almost analytically for arbitrary potentials. The Efimov effect is especially considered. The geometric structures of the bound states are quantitatively investigated. The accuracy of the schematic models and previous computations is comparable, i.e. within 20% for the spatially extended states and within 40% for the smaller ^4He-trimer ground state.Comment: 32 pages containing 7 figures and 6 table

Strong and radiative decays of the Ds0*(2317) meson in the DK-molecule picture

We consider a possible interpretation of the new charm-strange meson Ds0*(2317) as a hadronic molecule - a bound state of D and K mesons. Using an effective Lagrangian approach we calculate the strong Ds0* to Ds pi0 and radiative Ds0* to Ds* gamma decays. A new impact related to the DK molecular structure of the Ds0*(2317) meson is that the presence of u(d) quarks in the D and K mesons gives rise to a direct strong isospin-violating transition Ds0* to Ds pi0 in addition to the decay mechanism induced by eta-pi0 mixing considered previously. We show that the direct transition dominates over the eta-pi0 mixing transition in the Ds0* to Ds pi0 decay. Our results for the partial decay widths are consistent with previous calculations.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Adiabatic hyperspherical study of triatomic helium systems

The 4He3 system is studied using the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. We adopt the current state-of-the-art helium interaction potential including retardation and the nonadditive three-body term, to calculate all low-energy properties of the triatomic 4He system. The bound state energies of the 4He trimer are computed as well as the 4He+4He2 elastic scattering cross sections, the three-body recombination and collision induced dissociation rates at finite temperatures. We also treat the system that consists of two 4He and one 3He atoms, and compute the spectrum of the isotopic trimer 4He2 3He, the 3He+4He2 elastic scattering cross sections, the rates for three-body recombination and the collision induced dissociation rate at finite temperatures. The effects of retardation and the nonadditive three-body term are investigated. Retardation is found to be significant in some cases, while the three-body term plays only a minor role for these systems.Comment: 24 pages 6 figures Submitted to Physical Review

Production of three-body Efimov molecules in an optical lattice

We study the possibility of associating meta-stable Efimov trimers from three free Bose atoms in a tight trap realised, for instance, via an optical lattice site or a microchip. The suggested scheme for the production of these molecules is based on magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances and takes advantage of the Efimov effect in three-body energy spectra. Our predictions on the energy levels and wave functions of three pairwise interacting 85Rb atoms rely upon exact solutions of the Faddeev equations and include the tightly confining potential of an isotropic harmonic atom trap. The magnetic field dependence of these energy levels indicates that it is the lowest energetic Efimov trimer state that can be associated in an adiabatic sweep of the field strength. We show that the binding energies and spatial extents of the trimer molecules produced are comparable, in their magnitudes, to those of the associated diatomic Feshbach molecule. The three-body molecular state follows Efimov's scenario when the pairwise attraction of the atoms is strengthened by tuning the magnetic field strength.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures (final version