Emergent Inflation of the Efimov Spectrum under Three-Body Spin-Exchange Interactions

We resolve the unexpected and long-standing disagreement between experiment and theory in the Efimovian three-body spectrum of ^{7}Li, commonly referred to as the lithium few-body puzzle. Our results show that the discrepancy arises out of the presence of strong nonuniversal three-body spin-exchange interactions, which enact an effective inflation of the universal Efimov spectrum. This conclusion is obtained from a thorough numerical solution of the quantum mechanical three-body problem, including precise interatomic interactions and all spin degrees of freedom for three alkali-metal atoms. Our results show excellent agreement with the experimental data regarding both the Efimov spectrum and the absolute rate constants of three-body recombination, and in addition reveal a general product propensity for such triatomic reactions in the Paschen-Back regime, stemming from Wigner's spin conservation rule.

Reshaped three-body interactions and the observation of an Efimov state in the continuum

Efimov trimers are exotic three-body quantum states that emerge from the different types of three-body continua in the vicinity of two-atom Feshbach resonances. In particular, as the strength of the interaction is decreased to a critical point, an Efimov state merges into the atom-dimer threshold and eventually dissociates into an unbound atom-dimer pair. Here we explore the Efimov state in the vicinity of this critical point using coherent few-body spectroscopy in 7Li atoms using a narrow two-body Feshbach resonance. Contrary to the expectation, we find that the 7Li Efimov trimer does not immediately dissociate when passing the threshold, and survives as a metastable state embedded in the atom-dimer continuum. We identify this behavior with a universal phenomenon related to the emergence of a repulsive interaction in the atom-dimer channel which reshapes the three-body interactions in any system characterized by a narrow Feshbach resonance. Specifically, our results shed light on the nature of 7Li Efimov states and provide a path to understand various puzzling phenomena associated with them.

Precise quantum measurement of vacuum with cold atoms

We describe the cold-atom vacuum standards (CAVS) under development at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The CAVS measures pressure in the ultra-high and extreme-high vacuum regimes by measuring the loss rate of sub-millikelvin sensor atoms from a magnetic trap. Ab initio quantum scattering calculations of cross sections and rate coefficients relate the density of background gas molecules or atoms to the loss rate of ultra-cold sensor atoms. The resulting measurement of pressure through the ideal gas law is traceable to the second and the kelvin, making it a primary realization of the pascal. At NIST, two versions of the CAVS have been constructed: a laboratory standard used to achieve the lowest possible uncertainties and pressures, and a portable version that is a potential replacement for the Bayard-Alpert ionization gauge. Both types of CAVSs are connected to a combined extreme-high vacuum flowmeter and dynamic expansion system to enable sensing of a known pressure of gas. In the near future, we anticipate being able to compare the laboratory scale CAVS, the portable CAVS, and the flowmeter/dynamic expansion system to validate the operation of the CAVS as both a standard and vacuum gauge.

Chemistry of a Light Impurity in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Similar to an electron in a solid, an impurity in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is dressed by excitations from the medium, forming a polaron quasiparticle with modified properties. This impurity can also undergo chemical recombination with atoms from the BEC, a process resonantly enhanced when universal three-body Efimov bound states cross the continuum. To study the interplay between these phenomena, we use a Gaussian state variational method able to describe both Efimov physics and arbitrarily many excitations of the BEC. We show that the polaron cloud contributes to bound state formation, leading to a shift of the Efimov resonance to smaller interaction strengths. This shifted scattering resonance marks the onset of a polaronic instability towards the decay into large Efimov clusters and fast recombination, offering a remarkable example of chemistry in a quantum medium.

Borromean Droplet in Three-Component Ultracold Bose Gases

We investigate droplet formation in three-component ultracold bosons. In particular, we identify the formation of a Borromean droplet, where only the ternary bosons can form a self-bound droplet while any binary subsystems cannot, as the first example of Borromean binding due to a collective many-body effect. Its formation is facilitated by an additional attractive force induced by the density fluctuation of a third component, which enlarges the mean-field collapse region in comparison to the binary case and renders the formation of a Borromean droplet after incorporating the repulsive force from quantum fluctuations. Outside the Borromean regime, we demonstrate an interesting phenomenon of droplet phase separation due to the competition between ternary and binary droplets. We further show that the transition between different droplets and gas phase can be conveniently tuned by boson numbers and interaction strengths. The study reveals the rich physics of a quantum droplet in three-component boson mixtures and sheds light on the more intriguing many-body bound state formed in multicomponent systems.

Precision Test of the Limits to Universality in Few-Body Physics

We perform precise studies of two- and three-body interactions near an intermediate-strength Feshbach resonance in ^{39}K at 33.5820(14) G. Precise measurement of dimer binding energies, spanning three orders of magnitude, enables the construction of a complete two-body coupled-channel model for determination of the scattering lengths with an unprecedented low uncertainty. Utilizing an accurate scattering length map, we measure the precise location of the Efimov ground state to test van der Waals universality. Precise control of the sample's temperature and density ensures that systematic effects on the Efimov trimer state are well understood. We measure the ground Efimov resonance location to be at -14.05(17) times the van der Waals length r_{vdW}, significantly deviating from the value of -9.7r_{vdW} predicted by van der Waals universality. We find that a refined multichannel three-body model, built on our measurement of two-body physics, can account for this difference and even successfully predict the Efimov inelasticity parameter η.

Sticky collisions of ultracold RbCs molecules

Understanding and controlling collisions is crucial to the burgeoning field of ultracold molecules. All experiments so far have observed fast loss of molecules from the trap. However, the dominant mechanism for collisional loss is not well understood when there are no allowed 2-body loss processes. Here we experimentally investigate collisional losses of nonreactive ultracold 87Rb133Cs molecules, and compare our findings with the sticky collision hypothesis that pairs of molecules form long-lived collision complexes. We demonstrate that loss of molecules occupying their rotational and hyperfine ground state is best described by second-order rate equations, consistent with the expectation for complex-mediated collisions, but that the rate is lower than the limit of universal loss. The loss is insensitive to magnetic field but increases for excited rotational states. We demonstrate that dipolar effects lead to significantly faster loss for an incoherent mixture of rotational states.

Coherent Superposition of Feshbach Dimers and Efimov Trimers

A powerful experimental technique to study Efimov physics at positive scattering lengths is demonstrated. We use the Feshbach dimers as a local reference for Efimov trimers by creating a coherent superposition of both states. Measurement of its coherent evolution provides information on the binding energy of the trimers with unprecedented precision and yields access to previously inaccessible parameters of the system such as the Efimov trimers' lifetime and the elastic processes between atoms and the constituents of the superposition state. We develop a comprehensive data analysis suitable for noisy experimental data that confirms the trustworthiness of our demonstration.

Cold atom-atom-anion three-body recombination of 4He4HexLi- (x = 6 or 7) systems

Atom-atom-anion three-body recombination (TBR) in mixed ⁴He and ^xLi^- (x = 6 or 7) is investigated in the adiabatic hyperspherical representation by quantum mechanically solving the Schrödinger equation. The distributions of product states following these TBR processes are found to be relatively different for the two systems when the collision energy is less than roughly 0.6 mK × k_B or 0.3 mK × k_B for ⁴He⁴He⁶Li^- and ⁴He⁴He⁷Li^- systems, respectively, with k_B being the Boltzmann constant. For ⁴He⁴He⁶Li^- systems, the rate of recombination into (v=0) l = 0⁴He⁶Li^- molecular anions is the largest with v and l denoting the rovibrational quantum numbers, while the TBR rate that leads to the formation of l = 1⁴He⁶Li^- molecular anions is a little smaller than that of neutral ⁴He₂ molecules. For ⁴He⁴He⁷Li^- systems, neutral ⁴He₂ molecules tend to be the most products, following the yields of l = 0 and 1 ⁴He⁷Li^- molecular anions. However, in spite of these distinctly different distributions, the products of molecular anions, the sum of l = 0 and 1 ⁴He^xLi^- products, are relatively larger than that of neutral ⁴He₂ molecules for both the two systems.

Accurate calculations of weakly bound state energy and scattering length near magnetically tuned Feshbach resonance using the separable potential method

We present a theoretical model for investigating the magnetically tuned Feshbach resonance (MTFR) of alkali metal atoms using the separable potential method (SPM). We discuss the relationship and difference between the SPM and the asymptotic bound state model. To demonstrate the validity of the SPM, we use it to calculate the weakly bound state energy and magnetically tuned scattering length for the ⁶Li-⁴⁰K, ⁷Li₂, and ⁶Li₂ systems with narrow and broad Feshbach resonances. The results of the SPM calculations are in good agreement with those of coupled channel calculations and with experimental measurements for all three systems. The SPM, by simplifying the calculation of the two-body MTFR, is expected to simplify numerical computations for three-atom collisions in a magnetic field and the Feshbach-optimized photoassociation process.

Observation of Dynamical Super-Efimovian Expansion in a Unitary Fermi Gas

We report an observation of a dynamical super Efimovian expansion in a strongly interacting Fermi gas by engineering time dependent external harmonic trap frequencies. When the trap frequency is tailored as [1/4t^{2}+1/t^{2}λlog^{2}(t/t_{*})]^{1/2}, where t_{*} and λ are two controllable parameters, and the change is faster than a critical value, the expansion of such a quantum gas shows novel dynamics that share the same characteristics as the super Efimov effect. A clear double-log periodicity with discrete geometric scaling emerges for the cloud size in the expansion. The universality of such scaling dynamics is verified both in the noninteracting and in the unitarity limit of Fermi gas. Moreover, the measured energy scaling reveals that the potential and internal energy also show double-log periodicity with a π/2 phase difference, but the total energy is monotonically decreased. Observing super Efimovian evolution represents a paradigm in probing universal properties and allows us in a new way to study many-body nonequilibrium dynamics with experiments.

Observation of Efimov Molecules Created from a Resonantly Interacting Bose Gas

We convert a strongly interacting ultracold Bose gas into a mixture of atoms and molecules by sweeping the interactions from resonant to weak. By analyzing the decay dynamics of the molecular gas, we show that in addition to Feshbach dimers it contains Efimov trimers. Typically around 8% of the total atomic population is bound into trimers, identified by their density-independent lifetime of about 100  μs. The lifetime of the Feshbach dimers shows a density dependence due to inelastic atom-dimer collisions, in agreement with theoretical calculations. We also vary the density of the gas across a factor of 250 and investigate the corresponding atom loss rate at the interaction resonance.

Observing a scale anomaly and a universal quantum phase transition in graphene

One of the most interesting predictions resulting from quantum physics, is the violation of classical symmetries, collectively referred to as anomalies. A remarkable class of anomalies occurs when the continuous scale symmetry of a scale-free quantum system is broken into a discrete scale symmetry for a critical value of a control parameter. This is an example of a (zero temperature) quantum phase transition. Such an anomaly takes place for the quantum inverse square potential known to describe ‘Efimov physics’. Broken continuous scale symmetry into discrete scale symmetry also appears for a charged and massless Dirac fermion in an attractive 1/r Coulomb potential. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the universality of this quantum phase transition and to present convincing experimental evidence of its existence for a charged and massless fermion in an attractive Coulomb potential as realized in graphene.

When the continuous scale symmetry of a quantum system is broken, anomalies occur which may lead to quantum phase transitions. Here, the authors provide evidence for such a quantum phase transition in the attractive Coulomb potential of vacancies in graphene, and further envision its universality for diverse physical systems.

Visualizing the Efimov Correlation in Bose Polarons

The Bose polaron is a quasiparticle of an impurity dressed by surrounding bosons. In few-body physics, it is known that two identical bosons and a third distinguishable particle can form a sequence of Efimov bound states in the vicinity of interspecies scattering resonance. On the other hand, in the Bose polaron system with an impurity atom embedded in many bosons, no signature of Efimov physics has been reported in the existing spectroscopy measurements to date. In this Letter, we propose that a large mass imbalance between a light impurity and heavy bosons can help produce visible signatures of Efimov physics in such a spectroscopy measurement. Using the diagrammatic approach in the virial expansion to include three-body effects from pair-wise interactions, we determine the impurity self-energy and its spectral function. Taking the ^{6}Li-^{133}Cs system as a concrete example, we find two visible Efimov branches in the polaron spectrum, as well as their hybridizations with the attractive polaron branch. We also discuss the general scenarios for observing the signature of Efimov physics in polaron systems. This work paves the way for experimentally exploring intriguing few-body correlations in a many-body system in the near future.

Efimov physics: a review

This article reviews theoretical and experimental advances in Efimov physics, an array of quantum few-body and many-body phenomena arising for particles interacting via short-range resonant interactions, that is based on the appearance of a scale-invariant three-body attraction theoretically discovered by Vitaly Efimov in 1970. This three-body effect was originally proposed to explain the binding of nuclei such as the triton and the Hoyle state of carbon-12, and later considered as a simple explanation for the existence of some halo nuclei. It was subsequently evidenced in trapped ultra-cold atomic clouds and in diffracted molecular beams of gaseous helium. These experiments revealed that the previously undetermined three-body parameter introduced in the Efimov theory to stabilise the three-body attraction typically scales with the range of atomic interactions. The few- and many-body consequences of the Efimov attraction have been since investigated theoretically, and are expected to be observed in a broader spectrum of physical systems.

Inelastic collisions of ultracold triplet Rb2 molecules in the rovibrational ground state

Exploring and controlling inelastic and reactive collisions on the quantum level is a main goal of the developing field of ultracold chemistry. For this, the preparation of precisely defined initial atomic and molecular states in tailored environments is necessary. Here we present experimental studies of inelastic collisions of metastable ultracold Rb₂ molecules in an array of quasi-1D potential tubes. In particular, we investigate collisions of molecules in the absolute lowest triplet energy level where any inelastic process requires a change of the electronic state. Remarkably, we find similar decay rates as for collisions between rotationally or vibrationally excited triplet molecules where other decay paths are also available. The decay rates are close to the ones for universal reactions but vary considerably when confinement and collision energy are changed. This might be exploited to control the collisional properties of molecules.

Investigating the collisional behaviour of molecules on the quantum level is the key in understanding and controlling chemical reactions. Here the authors measure inelastic collision rates for ultracold Rb₂ dimers in precisely defined quantum states and show that the rates can be tuned via external parameters.

Role of sharp avoided crossings in short hyper-radial range in recombination of the cold 4He3 system

The role of sharp avoided crossings (SACs) in a short hyper-radial range R≤ 50 a.u. in the calculation of recombination for a cold ⁴He₃ system is investigated in the adiabatic hyperspherical representation by "turning off and on" the relevant nonadiabatic couplings. The influence of SACs on the recombination is related with the channels of the system and with the scattering energy. For J^Π = 0⁺ symmetry, the two-body recombination channel has an attractive potential well, which makes radial wave functions of both two-body recombination channel and three-body continuum channels accessible in the short hyper-radial range where SACs are located. The SACs consequently play an important role in coupled-channel calculations and this is particularly the case for lower scattering energies. However, for excited nuclear orbital momenta, i.e., J^Π = 1^-, 2⁺,…, 7^- symmetries, the two-body recombination channel has a repulsive interaction and the radial wave functions are not accessible in the short hyper-radial range. Therefore, omission of SACs in the short range for these symmetries has no effect on the numerical results, which leads to great savings on hyper-radial grid points in the practical numerical calculations. Moreover, to make the nonadiabatic couplings among channels to be continuous in the hyper-radius, different methods associated with the application of consistent phase convention are discussed.

Universal Three-Body Physics in Ultracold KRb Mixtures

Ultracold atomic gases have recently become a driving force in few-body physics due to the observation of the Efimov effect. While initially observed in equal mass systems, one expects even richer few-body physics in the heteronuclear case. In previous experiments with ultracold mixtures of potassium and rubidium, an unexpected nonuniversal behavior of Efimov resonances was observed. In contrast, we measure the scattering length dependent three-body recombination coefficient in ultracold heteronuclear mixtures of ^{39}K-^{87}Rb and ^{41}K-^{87}Rb and do not observe any signatures of Efimov resonances for accessible scattering lengths in either mixture. Our results show good agreement with our theoretical model for the scattering dependent three-body recombination coefficient and reestablish universality across isotopic mixtures.

Impurity in a Bose-Einstein Condensate and the Efimov Effect

We investigate the zero-temperature properties of an impurity particle interacting with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), using a variational wave function that includes up to two Bogoliubov excitations of the BEC. This allows one to capture three-body Efimov physics, as well as to recover the first nontrivial terms in the weak-coupling expansion. We show that the energy and quasiparticle residue of the dressed impurity (polaron) are significantly lowered by three-body correlations, even for weak interactions where there is no Efimov trimer state in a vacuum. For increasing attraction between the impurity and the BEC, we observe a smooth crossover from atom to Efimov trimer, with a superposition of states near the Efimov resonance. We furthermore demonstrate that three-body loss does not prohibit the experimental observation of these effects. Our results thus suggest a route to realizing Efimov physics in a stable quantum many-body system for the first time.

Borromean three-body FRET in frozen Rydberg gases

Controlling the interactions between ultracold atoms is crucial for quantum simulation and computation purposes. Highly excited Rydberg atoms are considered in this prospect for their strong and controllable interactions known in the dipole-dipole case to induce non-radiative energy transfers between atom pairs, similarly to fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) in biological systems. Here we predict few-body FRET processes in Rydberg atoms and observe the first three-body resonance energy transfer in cold Rydberg atoms using cold caesium atoms. In these resonances, additional relay atoms carry away an energy excess preventing the two-body resonance, leading thus to a Borromean type of energy transfer. These few-body processes present strong similarities with multistep FRET between chromophores sometimes called donor-bridge-acceptor or superexchange. Most importantly, they generalize to any Rydberg atom and could lead to new implementations of few-body quantum gates or entanglement.

Rydberg atoms are promising platform for quantum simulations, due to their strong and controllable dipole–dipole interactions. Here, the authors predict few-body processes in Rydberg atoms which resemble fluorescence resonance energy transfer in biological setting, and observe them in cold caesium atoms.

Theory of Long-Range Ultracold Atom-Molecule Photoassociation

The creation of ultracold molecules is currently limited to diatomic species. In this Letter, we present a theoretical description of the photoassociation of ultracold atoms and molecules to create ultracold excited triatomic molecules, thus being a novel example of a light-assisted ultracold chemical reaction. The calculation of the photoassociation rate of an ultracold Cs_{2} molecule in its rovibrational ground state with an ultracold Cs atom at frequencies close to its resonant excitation is reported, based on the solution of the quantum dynamics involving the atom-molecule long-range interactions and assuming a model potential for the short-range physics. The rate for the formation of excited Cs_{3} molecules is predicted to be comparable with currently observed atom-atom photoassociation rates. We formulate an experimental proposal to observe this process relying on the available techniques of optical lattices and standard photoassociation spectroscopy.

Onset of a limit cycle and universal three-body parameter in Efimov physics

The Efimov effect is the only experimentally realized universal phenomenon that exhibits the renormalization-group limit cycle with the three-body parameter parametrizing a family of universality classes. Recent experiments in ultracold atoms have unexpectedly revealed that the three-body parameter itself is universal when measured in units of an effective range. By performing an exact functional renormalization-group analysis with various finite-range interaction potentials, we demonstrate that the onset of the renormalization-group flow into the limit cycle is universal, regardless of short-range details, which connects the missing link between the two universalities of the Efimov physics. A close connection between the topological property of the limit cycle and few-body physics is also suggested.

Geometric scaling of Efimov states in a ⁶Li-¹³³Cs mixture

In few-body physics, Efimov states are an infinite series of three-body bound states that obey universal discrete scaling symmetry when pairwise interactions are resonantly enhanced. Despite abundant reports of Efimov states in recent cold atom experiments, direct observation of the discrete scaling symmetry remains an elusive goal. Here we report the observation of three consecutive Efimov resonances in a heteronuclear Li-Cs mixture near a broad interspecies Feshbach resonance. The positions of the resonances closely follow a geometric series 1, λ, λ². The observed scaling constant λ(exp)=4.9(4) is in good agreement with the predicted value of 4.88.

Generalized Efimov scenario for heavy-light mixtures

Motivated by recent experimental investigations of Cs-Cs-Li Efimov resonances, this work theoretically investigates the few-body properties of N-1 noninteracting identical heavy bosons, which interact with a light impurity through a large s-wave scattering length. For Cs-Cs-Cs-Li, we predict the existence of universal four-body states with energies E4(n,1) and E4(n,2), which are universally linked to the energy E3(n) of the nth Efimov trimer. For infinitely large (133)Cs-(6)Li and vanishing (133)Cs-(133)Cs scattering lengths, we find (E4(1,1)/E3(1))(1/2)≈1.51 and (E4(1,2)/E3(1))(1/2)≈1.01. The (133)Cs-(6)Li scattering lengths at which these states merge with the four-atom threshold, the dependence of these energy ratios on the mass ratio between the heavy and light atoms, and selected aspects of the generalized Efimov scenario for N>4 are also discussed. Possible implications of our results for ongoing cold atom experiments are presented.

Three-body physics in strongly correlated spinor condensates

Spinor condensates have proven to be a rich area for probing many-body phenomena richer than that of an ultracold gas consisting of atoms restricted to a single spin state. In the strongly correlated regime, the physics controlling the possible novel phases of the condensate remains largely unexplored, and few-body aspects can play a central role in the properties and dynamics of the system through manifestations of Efimov physics. The present study solves the three-body problem for bosonic spinors using the hyperspherical adiabatic representation and characterizes the multiple families of Efimov states in spinor systems as well as their signatures in the scattering observables relevant for spinor condensates. These solutions exhibit a rich array of possible phenomena originating in universal few-body physics, which can strongly affect the spin dynamics and three-body mean-field contributions for spinor condensates. The collisional aspects of atom-dimer spinor condensates are also analyzed, and effects are predicted that derive from Efimov physics.

Observation of Efimov resonances in a mixture with extreme mass imbalance

We observe two consecutive heteronuclear Efimov resonances in an ultracold Li-Cs mixture by measuring three-body loss coefficients as a function of magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance. The first resonance is detected at a scattering length of a_((0))=-320(10)a_((0)), corresponding to ∼7(∼3) times the Li-Cs (Cs-Cs) van der Waals range. The second resonance appears at 5.8(1.0)a_((0)), close to the unitarity-limited regime at the sample temperature of 450 nK. Indication of a third resonance is found in the atom loss spectra. The scaling of the resonance positions is close to the predicted universal scaling value of 4.9 for zero temperature. Deviations from universality might be caused by finite-range and temperature effects, as well as magnetic field-dependent Cs-Cs interactions.

Observation of the second triatomic resonance in Efimov's scenario

We report the observation of a three-body recombination resonance in an ultracold gas of cesium atoms at a very large negative value of the s-wave scattering length. The resonance is identified as the second triatomic Efimov resonance, which corresponds to the situation where the first excited Efimov state appears at the threshold of three free atoms. This observation, together with a finite-temperature analysis and the known first resonance, allows the most accurate demonstration to date of the discrete scaling behavior at the heart of Efimov physics. For the system of three identical bosons, we obtain a scaling factor of 21.0(1.3), close to the ideal value of 22.7.

Microscopic origin and universality classes of the Efimov three-body parameter

The low-energy spectrum of three particles interacting via nearly resonant two-body interactions in the Efimov regime is set by the so-called three-body parameter. We show that the three-body parameter is essentially determined by the zero-energy two-body correlation. As a result, we identify two classes of two-body interactions for which the three-body parameter has a universal value in units of their effective range. One class involves the universality of the three-body parameter recently found in ultracold atom systems. The other is relevant to short-range interactions that can be found in nuclear physics and solid-state physics.

Universal trimers induced by spin-orbit coupling in ultracold Fermi gases

In this Letter we address the issue of how synthetic spin-orbit (SO) coupling can strongly affect three-body physics in ultracold atomic gases. We consider a system which consists of three fermionic atoms, including two spinless heavy atoms and one spin-1/2 light atom subjected to an isotropic SO coupling. We find that SO coupling can induce universal three-body bound states with a negative s-wave scattering length at a smaller mass ratio, where no trimer bound state can exist if in the absence of SO coupling. The energies of these trimers are independent of the high-energy cutoff, and therefore they are universal ones. Moreover, the resulting atom-dimer resonance can be effectively controlled by SO coupling strength. Our results can be applied to systems like a 6Li and 40K mixture.

Three-body bound states in dipole-dipole interacting Rydberg atoms

We show that the dipole-dipole interaction between three identical Rydberg atoms can give rise to bound trimer states. The microscopic origin of these states is fundamentally different from Efimov physics. Two stable trimer configurations exist where the atoms form the vertices of an equilateral triangle in a plane perpendicular to a static electric field. The triangle edge length typically exceeds R≈2 μm, and each configuration is twofold degenerate due to Kramers degeneracy. The depth of the potential wells and the triangle edge length can be controlled by external parameters. We establish the Borromean nature of the trimer states, analyze the quantum dynamics in the potential wells, and describe methods for their production and detection.

Stability of a unitary Bose gas

We study the stability of a thermal (39)K Bose gas across a broad Feshbach resonance, focusing on the unitary regime, where the scattering length a exceeds the thermal wavelength λ. We measure the general scaling laws relating the particle-loss and heating rates to the temperature, scattering length, and atom number. Both at unitarity and for positive a<<λ we find agreement with three-body theory. However, for a<0 and away from unitarity, we observe significant four-body decay. At unitarity, the three-body loss coefficient, L(3) proportional λ(4), is 3 times lower than the universal theoretical upper bound. This reduction is a consequence of species-specific Efimov physics and makes (39)K particularly promising for studies of many-body physics in a unitary Bose gas.

Tests of universal three-body physics in an ultracold bose-fermi mixture

Recent measurements of Efimov resonances for a number of ultracold atom species have revealed an unexpected universality, in which three-body scattering properties are determined by the van der Waals length of the two-body interaction potential. To investigate whether this universality extends to heteronuclear mixtures, we measure loss rate coefficients in an ultracold trapped gas of 40K and 87Rb atoms. We find an Efimov-like resonance in the rate of inelastic collisions between 40K87Rb Feshbach molecules and 87Rb atoms. However, we do not observe any Efimov-related resonances in the rates of inelastic collisions between three atoms. These observations are compared to previous measurements by the LENS group of Efimov resonances in a 41K and 87Rb mixture as well as to recent predictions.

Test of the universality of the three-body Efimov parameter at narrow Feshbach resonances

We measure the critical scattering length for the appearance of the first three-body bound state, or Efimov three-body parameter, at seven different Feshbach resonances in ultracold ^{39}K atoms. We study both intermediate and narrow resonances, where the three-body spectrum is expected to be determined by the nonuniversal coupling of two scattering channels. Instead, our observed ratio of the three-body parameter with the van der Waals radius is approximately the same universal ratio as for broader resonances. This unexpected observation suggests the presence of a new regime for three-body scattering at narrow resonances.

Atom loss resonances in a Bose-Einstein condensate

Atom loss resonances in ultracold trapped atoms have been observed at scattering lengths near atom-dimer resonances, at which Efimov trimers cross the atom-dimer threshold, and near two-dimer resonances, at which universal tetramers cross the dimer-dimer threshold. We propose a new mechanism for these loss resonances in a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms. As the scattering length is ramped to the large final value at which the atom loss rate is measured, the time-dependent scattering length generates a small condensate of shallow dimers coherently from the atom condensate. The coexisting atom and dimer condensates can be described by a low-energy effective field theory with universal coefficients that are determined by matching exact results from few-body physics. The classical field equations for the atom and dimer condensates predict narrow enhancements in the atom loss rate near atom-dimer resonances and near two-dimer resonances due to inelastic dimer collisions.

Many bosons in a narrow magnetic Feshbach resonance

The many-boson problem in the presence of an asymptotically narrow Feshbach resonance is considered. The low energy properties are investigated using a two-channel Hamiltonian. The energy spectrum of this model is shown to be bounded from below in the limit of a zero range interaction. This implies the promising possibility of achieving a strongly interacting bosonic phase in a dilute regime where the details of the actual interatomic forces are irrelevant. The integral relation between the energy and the one-body momentum distribution is derived.

Lifetime of the Bose gas with resonant interactions

We study the lifetime of a Bose gas at and around unitarity using a Feshbach resonance in lithium 7. At unitarity, we measure the temperature dependence of the three-body decay coefficient L(3). Our data follow a L(3)=λ(3)/T(2) law with λ(3)=2.5(3)(stat)(6)(syst)×10(-20) (μK)(2) cm(6) s(-1) and are in good agreement with our analytical result based on zero-range theory. Varying the scattering length a at fixed temperature, we investigate the crossover between the finite-temperature unitary region and the previously studied regime where |a| is smaller than the thermal wavelength. We find that L(3) is continuous across the resonance, and over the whole a<0 range our data quantitatively agree with our calculation.

Universal three-body parameter in heteronuclear atomic systems

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, has 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 atom, 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 picture. Finally, we show the numerically determined 3BPs for some combinations of alkali atoms used in ultracold experiments.

Universal four-body states in heavy-light mixtures with a positive scattering length

The number of four-body states known to behave universally is small. This work adds a new class of four-body states to this relatively short list. We predict the existence of a universal four-body bound state for heavy-light mixtures consisting of three identical heavy fermions and a fourth distinguishable lighter particle with a mass ratio κ>/~9.5 and short-range interspecies interaction characterized by a positive s-wave scattering length. The structural properties of these universal states are discussed, and finite-range effects are analyzed. The bound states can be experimentally realized and probed by utilizing ultracold atom mixtures.

N-body Efimov states from two-particle noise

The ground state energies of universal N-body clusters tied to Efimov trimers, for N even, are shown to be encapsulated in the statistical distribution of two particles interacting with a background auxiliary field at large Euclidean time when the interaction is tuned to the unitary point. Numerical evidence that this distribution is log normal is presented, allowing one to predict the ground state energies of the N-body system.

Universal bound states of two particles in mixed dimensions or near a mirror

Some novel two-body effects analogous to the well-known three-body Efimov effect are predicted. In the systems considered, particle A is constrained on a truncated or bent one-dimensional line or two-dimensional plane, or on one side of a flat mirror in three dimensions (3D). The constraining potential is fine-tuned such that particle A's ground state wave function is a constant in the region in which it is constrained. Particle B moves in 3D and interacts with particle A, resonantly. An infinite sequence of giant two-body bound states are found in each case.

Origin of the three-body parameter universality in Efimov physics

In recent years extensive theoretical and experimental studies of universal few-body physics have advanced our understanding of universal Efimov physics. Whereas theory had been the driving force behind our understanding of Efimov physics for decades, recent experiments have contributed an unexpected discovery. Specifically, measurements have found that the so-called three-body parameter determining several properties of the system is universal, even though fundamental assumptions in the theory of the Efimov effect suggest that it should be a variable property that depends on the precise details of the short-range two- and three-body interactions. The present Letter resolves this apparent contradiction by elucidating previously unanticipated implications of the two-body interactions. Our study shows that the three-body parameter universality emerges because a universal effective barrier in the three-body potentials prevents the three particles from simultaneously getting close together. Our results also show limitations on this universality, as it is more likely to occur for neutral atoms but less likely to extend to light nuclei.

Association of Efimov trimers from a three-atom continuum

We develop an experimental technique for rf association of Efimov trimers from a three-atom continuum. We apply it to probe the lowest accessible Efimov energy level in bosonic lithium in the region where strong deviations from the universal behavior are expected, and provide a quantitative study of this effect. The position of the Efimov resonance at the atom-dimer threshold, measured using a different experimental technique, concurs with the rf association results.

Bose gases near unitarity

We study the properties of strongly interacting Bose gases at the density and temperature regime when the three-body recombination rate is substantially reduced. In this regime, one can have a Bose gas with all particles in scattering states (i.e., the "upper branch") with little loss even at unitarity over the duration of the experiment. We show that because of bosonic enhancement, pair formation is shifted to the atomic side of the original resonance (where scattering length a(s)<0), opposite to the fermionic case. In a trap, a repulsive Bose gas remains mechanically stable when brought across resonance to the atomic side until it reaches a critical scattering length a(s)*<0. For a(s)<a(s)*, the density consists of a core of upper branch bosons surrounded by an outer layer of equilibrium branch. The conditions of low three-body recombination require that the particle number N<1.024(T/ω)(5/2) in a harmonic trap with frequency ω.

Measurements of Tan's contact in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate

A powerful set of universal relations, centered on a quantity called the contact, connects the strength of short-range two-body correlations to the thermodynamics of a many-body system with zero-range interactions. We report on measurements of the contact, using rf spectroscopy, for an (85)Rb atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). For bosons, the fact that contact spectroscopy can be used to probe the gas on short time scales is useful given the decreasing stability of BECs with increasing interactions. A complication is the added possibility, for bosons, of three-body interactions. In investigating this issue, we have located an Efimov resonance for (85)Rb atoms with loss measurements and thus determined the three-body interaction parameter. In our contact spectroscopy, in a region of observable beyond-mean-field effects, we find no measurable contribution from three-body physics.

Few-body physics with ultracold atomic and molecular systems in traps

Few-body physics has played a prominent role in atomic, molecular and nuclear physics since the early days of quantum mechanics. It is now possible-thanks to tremendous progress in cooling, trapping and manipulating ultracold samples-to experimentally study few-body phenomena in trapped atomic and molecular systems with unprecedented control. This review summarizes recent studies of few-body phenomena in trapped atomic and molecular gases, with an emphasis on small trapped systems. We start by introducing the free-space scattering properties and then investigate what happens when two particles, bosons or fermions, are placed in an external confinement. Next, various three-body systems are treated analytically in limiting cases. Our current understanding of larger two-component Fermi systems and Bose systems is reviewed, and connections with the corresponding bulk systems are established. Lastly, future prospects and challenges are discussed. Throughout this review, commonalities with other systems such as nuclei or quantum dots are highlighted.