Harmonically Trapped Four-Boson System

ORAL

Abstract

Four identical spinless bosons with purely attractive two-body short-range interactions and repulsive three-body interactions under external spherically symmetric harmonic confinement are considered. The repulsive three-body potential prevents the formation of deeply-bound states with molecular character. The low-energy spectrum with vanishing orbital angular momentum and positive parity for infinitely large two-body s-wave scattering length is analyzed in detail. Using the three-body contact, states are classified as universal, weakly non-universal, or strongly non-universal. Connections with the zero-range interaction model are discussed. The energy spectrum is mapped out as a function of the positive two-body s-wave scattering length. In the weakly- to medium-strongly-interacting regime, one of the states approaches the energy obtained for a hard core interaction model. This state is identified as the energetically lowest-lying "BEC state". Structural properties are also presented.

*We gratefully acknowledge support by the NSF.

Authors

  • Doerte Blume

    • University of Oklahoma
    • Univ of Oklahoma
  • M. W. C. Sze

    • JILA, NIST, and University of Colorado
  • J. L. Bohn

    • JILA, NIST, and University of Colorado