Fermionic trimers in spin-dependent optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper explores the formation and properties of three-body bound states (trimers) in spin-dependent optical lattices, revealing multiple bound states and the influence of mass asymmetry on their stability.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized Mattis integral equation for unequal Bloch masses to analyze trimer binding energies and stability in spin-dependent optical lattices.

Findings

Multiple trimer bound states exist, including excited states.

Stable trimers are favored by large mass asymmetry.

Binding energies and effective masses are characterized for these states.

Abstract

We investigate the formation of three-body bound states (trimers) in two-component Fermi gases confined in one dimensional optical lattice with spin-dependent tunneling rates. The binding energy and the effective mass of the trimer are obtained from the solution of the Mattis integral equation generalized to the case of unequal Bloch masses. We show that this equation admits multiple solutions corresponding to excited bound states, which are only stable for large mass asymmetry.