Weakly bound states with spin-isospin symmetry

We discuss weakly bound states of a few-fermion system having spin-isospin symmetry. This corresponds to the nuclear physics case in which the singlet, $a_0$, and triplet, $a_1$, $n-p$ scattering lengths are large with respect to the range of the nuclear interaction. The ratio of the two is about $a_0/a_1\approx-4.31$. This value defines a plane in which $a_0$ and $a_1$ can be varied up to the unitary limit, $1/a_0=0$ and $1/a_1=0$, maintaining its ratio fixed. Using a spin dependant potential model we estimate the three-nucleon binding energy along that plane. This analysis can be considered an extension of the Efimov plot for three bosons to the case of three $1/2$-spin-isospin fermions.Comment: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics. May 18-22, 2015. Chicago, Illinois, US

Recombination rates from potential models close to the unitary limit

We investigate universal behavior in the recombination rate of three bosons close to threshold. Using the He-He system as a reference, we solve the three-body Schr\"odinger equation above the dimer threshold for different potentials having large values of the two-body scattering length $a$. To this aim we use the hyperspherical adiabatic expansion and we extract the $S$-matrix through the integral relations recently derived. The results are compared to the universal form, $\alpha\approx 67.1\sin^2[s_0\ln(\kappa_*a)+\gamma]$, for different values of $a$ and selected values of the three-body parameter $\kappa_*$. A good agreement with the universal formula is obtained after introducing a particular type of finite-range corrections, which have been recently proposed by two of the authors in Ref.[1]. Furthermore, we analyze the validity of the above formula in the description of a very different system: neutron-neutron-proton recombination. Our analysis confirms the universal character of the process in systems of very different scales having a large two-body scattering length

Embedding nuclear physics inside the unitary window

The large values of the singlet and triplet scattering lengths locate the two-nucleon system close to the unitary limit, the limit in which these two values diverge. As a consequence, the system shows a continuous scale invariance which strongly constrains the values of the observables, a well-known fact already noticed a long time ago. The three-nucleon system shows a discrete scale invariance that can be observed by correlations of the triton binding energy with other observables as the doublet nucleon-deuteron scattering length or the alpha-particle binding energy. The low-energy dynamics of these systems is universal; it does not depend on the details of the particular way in which the nucleons interact. Instead, it depends on a few control parameters, the large values of the scattering lengths and the triton binding energy. Using a potential model with variable strength set to give values to the control parameters, we study the spectrum of $A=2,3,4,6$ nuclei in the region between the unitary limit and their physical values. In particular, we analyze how the binding energies emerge from the unitary limit forming the observed levels