Universal three-body parameter in heteronuclear atomic systems
arXiv:1207.6439 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.243201
Abstract
In Efimov physics, a three-body parameter (3BP), previously regarded as nonuniversal, uniquely defines bound and scattering properties of three particles. A universal 3BP, however, have been recently shown in experiments and theory in ultracold homonuclear gases. Our present study further predicts a universal 3BP for heteronuclear atomic systems near broad Feshbach resonances, and provides physical interpretations for its origin. We show that for a system composed of two light and one heavy atoms, the physical origin of the universal 3BP is similar to the homonuclear case while for systems composed by one light and two heavy atoms the universality of the 3BP is now mostly controlled by the heavy-heavy interatomic properties. This new universality is explained by the universal properties of the van der Waals interactions in a simple Born-Oppenheimer (BO) picture. Finally, we show the numerically determined 3BPs for some combinations of alkali atoms used in ultracold experiments.
5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table
References in corpus (9)
- Observation of an Efimov spectrum in an atomic system
- Collisional stability of a three-component degenerate Fermi gas
- Three-body recombination in a three-state Fermi gas with widely tunable interactions
- Three-boson problem near a narrow Feshbach resonance
- Observation of universality in ultracold 7Li three-body recombination
- Two-color photoassociation spectroscopy of ytterbium atoms and the precise determinations of s-wave scattering lengths
- Observation of heteronuclear atomic Efimov resonances
- Atom-Dimer Scattering in a Three-Component Fermi Gas
- Efimov Physics and the Three-Body Parameter within a Two-Channel Framework