Author: ["S. Knoop","F. Ferlaino","M. Mark","M. Berninger","H. Schöbel","H.-C. Nägerl","R. Grimm"]
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Abstract
The observation of a trimer resonance in an ultracold mixture of caesium atoms and dimers confirms one of the key predictions of three-body physics in the limit of resonant two-body interactions, with possible implications for understanding few-body states in nuclear matter. The field of few-body physics has originally been motivated by understanding nuclear matter, but in the past few years ultracold gases with tunable interactions have emerged as model systems to experimentally explore few-body quantum systems1,2,3. Even though the energy scales involved are vastly different for ultracold and nuclear matter (picoelectronvolt as compared with megaelectronvolt), few-body phenomena acquire universal properties for near-resonant two-body interactions2. So-called Efimov states represent a paradigm for universal quantum states in the three-body sector4. After decades of theoretical work, a first experimental signature of such a weakly bound trimer state was recently found under conditions where a weakly bound dimer state is absent5,6,7. Here, we report on a trimer state in the opposite regime, where such a dimer state exists. The trimer state manifests itself in a resonant enhancement of inelastic collisions in a mixture of atoms and dimers. Our observation is closely related to an atom–dimer resonance as predicted by Efimov8,9,10, but occurs in the theoretically challenging regime where the trimer spectrum reveals effects beyond the universal limit.Cite this article
Knoop, S., Ferlaino, F., Mark, M. et al. Observation of an Efimov-like trimer resonance in ultracold atom–dimer scattering. Nature Phys 5, 227–230 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1203 