Ground-state energy and stability limit of small 3He drops

TL;DR

This paper uses diffusion Monte Carlo methods to accurately determine the minimum number of 3He atoms needed for stable, self-bound drops, revealing that 30 atoms form the smallest stable cluster with specific orbital configurations.

Contribution

The study provides the first microscopic calculation of the stability threshold for small 3He drops, identifying the minimum stable size and preferred orbital arrangements.

Findings

Minimum stable 3He drop size is 30 atoms.

Preferred open-shell orbital configurations maximize spin.

Results improve understanding of fermionic quantum droplets.

Abstract

Small and stable drops of 3He atoms can only exist above a minimum number of particles, due to the combination of the 3He atom Fermi statistics and its light mass. An accurate estimation of this minimum number using microscopic theory has been difficult due to the inhomogeneous and fermionic nature of these systems. We present a diffusion Monte Carlo calculation of 3He drops with sizes near the minimum in order to determine the stability threshold. The results show that the minimum self-bound drop is formed by N=30 atoms with preferred orbitals for open shells corresponding to maximum value of the spin.