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

Yaakov Yudkin; Roy Elbaz; José P. D’Incao; Paul S. Julienne; Lev Khaykovich

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-46353-1

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

Yaakov Yudkin, Roy Elbaz, José P. D’Incao, Paul S. Julienne, Lev Khaykovich

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2 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Article number	2127
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46353-1
State	Published - 8 Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

This work is supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF, Grant no. PHY-2012125 and PHY-2308791), and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF, Grant No. 2019795 and No. 2022740). L.K. also acknowledges the Israel Science Foundation (ISF, Grant no. 1543/20) and J.P.D. acknowledges partial support from NASA/JPL (Grant No. 1502690). This work utilized the RMACC Summit supercomputer, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (awards ACI-1532235 and ACI-1532236), the University of Colorado Boulder, and Colorado State University. The authors also acknowledge further support from the NSF grant PHY-1748958 via the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	PHY-2012125, ACI-1532235, ACI-1532236, PHY-2308791
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
Jet Propulsion Laboratory	1502690
Colorado State University	PHY-1748958
University of Colorado Boulder
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation	2019795, 2022740
Israel Science Foundation	1543/20

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10.1038/s41467-024-46353-1

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abstract = "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.",

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AU - Khaykovich, Lev

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

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