Resonant Five-body Recombination in an Ultracold Gas of Bosonic Atoms

TL;DR

This paper combines theoretical modeling and experimental measurements to investigate five-body recombination resonances in ultracold cesium gases, confirming predictions of universal cluster states related to Efimov physics.

Contribution

It introduces a refined theoretical model and experimental validation of five-body recombination resonances in ultracold cesium, supporting the existence of universal cluster states.

Findings

Observation of a new five-body recombination resonance

Agreement between experimental data and theoretical predictions

Confirmation of universal cluster states tied to Efimov trimers

Abstract

We combine theory and experiment to investigate five-body recombination in an ultracold gas of atomic cesium at negative scattering length. A refined theoretical model, in combination with extensive laboratory tunability of the interatomic interactions, enables the five-body resonant recombination rate to be calculated and measured. The position of the new observed recombination feature agrees with a recent theoretical prediction and supports the prediction of a family of universal cluster states at negative $a$ that are tied to an Efimov trimer.