Efimov trimers under strong confinement

Abstract

The dimensionality of a system can fundamentally impact the behaviour of interacting quantum particles. Classic examples range from the fractional quantum Hall effect to high temperature superconductivity. As a general rule, one expects confinement to favour the binding of particles. However, attractively interacting bosons apparently defy this expectation: while three identical bosons in three dimensions can support an infinite tower of Efimov trimers, only two universal trimers exist in the two dimensional case. We reveal how these two limits are connected by investigating the problem of three identical bosons confined by a harmonic potential along one direction. We show that the confinement breaks the discrete Efimov scaling symmetry and destroys the weakest bound trimers. However, the deepest bound Efimov trimer persists under strong confinement and hybridizes with the quasi-two-dimensional trimers, yielding a superposition of trimer configurations that effectively involves tunnelling through a short-range repulsive barrier. Our results suggest a way to use strong confinement to engineer more stable Efimov-like trimers, which have so far proved elusive.

8 pages, 4 figures. Typos corrected, published version

References in corpus (10)

• Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases
• Observation of an Efimov spectrum in an atomic system
• Observation of scale invariance and universality in two-dimensional Bose gases
• Observation of universality in ultracold 7Li three-body recombination
• Evidence for Universal Four-Body States Tied to an Efimov Trimer
• Radio Frequency Association of Efimov Trimers
• Universality of the three-body Efimov parameter at narrow Feshbach resonances
• Efimov effect in quantum magnets
• Three-body problem for ultracold atoms in quasi-one-dimensional traps
• Bound states in a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Efimov Physics: a review
• Universal few-body physics and cluster formation
• Impurity in a Bose-Einstein condensate and the Efimov effect
• A Pure Confinement Induced Trimer in One-Dimensional Atomic Waveguides
• SU(N) Fermions in a One-Dimensional Harmonic Trap
• Efimov effect in $D$ spatial dimensions in $AAB$ systems
• Weakly bound states of two- and three-boson systems in the crossover from two to three dimension
• Three-body correlations in a two-dimensional SU(3) Fermi gas
• Universal tetramer and pentamer in two-dimensional fermionic mixtures
• Universality in a one-dimensional three-body system
• Three identical bosons: Properties in non-integer dimensions and in external fields
• Efimov effect in a $D$-dimensional Born-Oppenheimer approach
• D-dimensional three-body bound-state problem with zero range interactions
• Variational approach to the two-dimensional Bose polaron
• Universality of excited three-body bound states in one dimension
• Mean-square radii in mixed-species systems in two dimensions
• Ultracold-atom collisions in atomic waveguides : A two-channel analysis
• Three-body continuum states and Efimov physics in non-integer geometry
• Dynamical excitation processes and correlations of three-body two-dimensional mixtures
• Long-lived trimers in a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi system
• Three-Boson Bound States in Two Dimensions
• Two-body continuum states in non-integer geometry
• Energetics and structural properties of two- and three-boson systems in the presence of 1D spin-orbit coupling
• Universal clusters in quasi-two-dimensional ultracold Fermi mixtures
• Microscopic theory of the Hubbard interaction in low-dimensional optical lattices
• Functional-renormalization-group approach to strongly coupled Bose-Fermi mixtures in two dimensions