Three-body rf association of Efimov trimers

TL;DR

This paper provides a theoretical framework for rf association of Efimov trimers in ultracold Bose gases, revealing universal scaling laws and potential for efficient trimer creation using rf techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a universal expression for 3-body rf association rates using hyperspherical formalism, highlighting the potential for experimental control of Efimov states.

Findings

Association rates scale as a^{-2} for large scattering length a

Rates diverge as a^3 a_{ad}^3 near Efimov state crossings

Trimer formation rates up to 10^{-21} cm^6/s with 1 MHz rf Rabi frequency

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of rf association of Efimov trimers in a 2-component Bose gas with short-range interactions. Using the adiabatic hyperspherical Green's function formalism to solve the quantum 3-body problem, we obtain universal expressions for 3-body rf association rates as a function of the s-wave scattering length $a$. We find that the association rates scale as $a^{-2}$ in the limit of large $a$, and diverge as $a^3 a_{ad}^{3}$ whenever an Efimov state crosses the atom-dimer threshold (where $a_{ad}$ stands for the atom-dimer scattering length). Our calculations show that trimer formation rates as large as $\sim10^{-21}$ cm$^6$/s can be achieved with rf Rabi frequencies of order 1 MHz, suggesting that direct rf association is a powerful tool of making and probing few-body quantum states in ultracold atomic gases.