No Arabic abstract
The existence of the Efimov effect is drastically affected by the dimensionality of the space in which the system is embedded. The effective spatial dimension containing an atomic cloud can be continuously modified by compressing it in one or two directions. In the present article we determine for a general $AAB$ system formed by two identical bosons $A$ and a third particle $B$ in the two-body unitary limit, the dimensionsality $D$ for which the Efimov effect can exist for different values of the mass ratio $mathpzc{A}=m_B/m_A$. In addition, we provide a prediction for the Efimov discrete scaling factor, ${rm exp},(pi/s)$, as a function of a wide range of values of $mathpzc{A}$ and $D$, which can be tested in experiments that can be realized with currently available technology.
We study a three-body system, formed by two identical heavy bosons and a light particle, in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for an arbitrary dimension $D$. We restrict $D$ to the interval $2,<,D,<,4$, and derive the heavy-heavy $D$-dimensional effective potential proportional to $1/R^2$ ($R$ is the relative distance between the heavy particles), which is responsible for the Efimov effect. We found that the Efimov states disappear once the critical strength of the heavy-heavy effective potential $1/R^2$ approaches the limit $-(D-2)^2/4$. We obtained the scaling function for the $^{133}$Cs-$^{133}$Cs-$^6$Li system as the limit cycle of the correlation between the energies of two consecutive Efimov states as a function of $D$ and the heavy-light binding energy $E^{D}_2$. In addition, we found that the energy of the $(N+1)^{rm th}$ excited state reaches the two-body continuum independently of the dimension $D$ when $sqrt{E^{D}_2/E_3^{(N)}}=0.89$, where $E_3^{(N)}$ is the $N^{rm th}$ excited three-body binding energy.
Efimov physics is drastically affected by the change of spatial dimensions. Efimov states occur in a tridimensional (3D) environment, but disappear in two (2D) and one (1D) dimensions. In this paper, dedicated to the memory of Prof. Faddeev, we will review some recent theoretical advances related to the effect of dimensionality in the Efimov phenomenon considering three-boson systems interacting by a zero-range potential. We will start with a very ideal case with no physical scales, passing to a system with finite energies in the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation and finishing with a general system. The physical reason for the appearance of the Efimov effect is given essentially by two reasons which can be revealed by the BO approximation - the form of the effective potential is proportional to $1/R^2$ ($R$ is the relative distance between the heavy particles) and its strength is smaller than the critical value given by $-(D-2)^2/4$, where $D$ is the effective dimension.
The discrete Efimov scaling behavior, well-known in the low-energy spectrum of three-body bound systems for large scattering lengths (unitary limit), is identified in the energy dependence of atom-molecule elastic cross-section in mass imbalanced systems. That happens in the collision of a heavy atom with mass $m_H$ with a weakly-bound dimer formed by the heavy atom and a lighter one with mass $m_L ll m_H$. Approaching the heavy-light unitary limit the $s-$wave elastic cross-section $sigma$ will present a sequence of zeros/minima at collision energies following closely the Efimov geometrical law. Our results open a new perspective to detect the discrete scaling behavior from low-energy scattering data, which is timely in view of the ongoing experiments with ultra-cold binary mixtures having strong mass asymmetries, such as Lithium and Caesium or Lithium and Ytterbium.
We study a one-dimensional quantum problem of two particles interacting with a third one via a scale-invariant subcritically attractive inverse square potential, which can be realized, for example, in a mixture of dipoles and charges confined to one dimension. We find that above a critical mass ratio, this version of the Calogero problem exhibits the generalized Efimov effect, the emergence of discrete scale invariance manifested by a geometric series of three-body bound states with an accumulation point at zero energy.
We demonstrate the emergence of universal Efimov physics for interacting photons in cold gases of Rydberg atoms. We consider the behavior of three photons injected into the gas in their propagating frame, where a paraxial approximation allows us to consider them as massive particles. In contrast to atoms and nuclei, the photons have a large anisotropy between their longitudinal mass, arising from dispersion, and their transverse mass, arising from diffraction. Nevertheless, we show that in suitably rescaled coordinates the effective interactions become dominated by s-wave scattering near threshold and, as a result, give rise to an Efimov effect near unitarity. We show that the three-body loss of these Efimov trimers can be strongly suppressed and determine conditions under which these states are observable in current experiments. These effects can be naturally extended to probe few-body universality beyond three bodies, as well as the role of Efimov physics in the non-equilbrium, many-body regime.