Few-body Interactions Research Articles

Quasiforbidden two-body Förster resonances in a cold Cs Rydberg gas

Cold Rydberg atoms are known to display dipole-dipole interaction allowed resonances, also called F\"orster resonances, which lead to an efficient energy transfer when the proper electric field is used. This electric field also enables resonances which do not respect the dipole-dipole selection rules under zero field. A few of these quasi-forbidden resonances have been observed but they are often overlooked. Here we show that in cold $^{133}$Cs atoms there is a large number of these resonances that display a significant transfer efficiency due to their strong interactions, even at low electric field. We also develop a graphical method enabling to find all possible resonances simultaneously. The resulting dramatic increase in the total number of addressable resonant energy transfers at different electric fields could have implications in the search for few-body interactions or macro-molecules built from Rydberg atoms.

Adiabatic tracking of quantum many-body dynamics

The nonadiabatic dynamics of a many-body system driven through a quantum critical point can be controlled using counterdiabatic driving, where the formation of excitations is suppressed by assisting the dynamics with auxiliary multiple-body nonlocal interactions. We propose an alternative scheme which circumvents practical challenges to realize shortcuts to adiabaticity in mesoscopic systems by tailoring the functional form of the auxiliary counterdiabatic interactions. A driving scheme resorting in few-body short-range interactions is shown to generate an effectively adiabatic dynamics.

Effective-range approximations for resonant scattering of cold atoms

Studies of cold atom collisions and few-body interactions often require the energy dependence of the scattering phase shift, which is usually expressed in terms of an effective-range expansion. We use accurate coupled-channel calculations on $^{6}$Li, $^{39}$K and $^{133}$Cs to explore the behavior of the effective range in the vicinity of both broad and narrow Feshbach resonances. We show that commonly used expressions for the effective range break down dramatically for narrow resonances and near the zero-crossings of broad resonances. We present an alternative parametrization of the effective range that is accurate through both the pole and the zero-crossing for both broad and narrow resonances. However, the effective range expansion can still fail at quite low collision energies, particularly around narrow resonances. We demonstrate that an analytical form of an energy and magnetic field-dependent phase shift, based on multichannel quantum defect theory, gives accurate results for the energy-dependent scattering length.

Multipartite entanglement and few-body Hamiltonians

We investigate the possibility to obtain higly multipartite-entangled states as non-degenerate eigenstates of Hamiltonians that involve only short-range and few-body interactions. We study small-size systems (with a number of qubits ranging from three to five) and search for Hamiltonians with a maximally multipartite entangled state (MMES) as a non-degenerate eigenstate. We then find conditions, including bounds on the number of coupled qubits, to build a Hamiltonian with a Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) state as a non-degenerate eigenstate. We finally comment on possible applications.

Effects of the interplay between initial state and Hamiltonian on the thermalization of isolated quantum many-body systems

We explore the role of the initial state on the onset of thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems after a quench. The initial state is an eigenstate of an initial Hamiltonian H(I) and it evolves according to a different final Hamiltonian H(F). If the initial state has a chaotic structure with respect to H(F), i.e., if it fills the energy shell ergodically, thermalization is certain to occur. This happens when H(I) is a full random matrix, because its states projected onto H(F), are fully delocalized. The results for the observables then agree with those obtained with thermal states at infinite temperature. However, finite real systems with few-body interactions, as the ones considered here, are deprived of fully extended eigenstates, even when described by a nonintegrable Hamiltonian. We examine how the initial state delocalizes as it gets closer to the middle of the spectrum of H(F), causing the observables to approach thermal averages, be the models integrable or chaotic. Our numerical studies are based on initial states with energies that cover the entire lower half of the spectrum of one-dimensional Heisenberg spin-1/2 systems.

Reaction of massive clusters to gas expulsion – The cluster density dependence

The expulsion of the unconverted gas at the end of the star formation process potentially leads to the expansion of the just formed stellar cluster and membership loss. The degree of expansion and mass loss depends largely on the star formation efficiency and scales with the mass and size of the stellar group as long as stellar interactions can be neglected. We investigate under which circumstances stellar interactions between cluster members become so important that the fraction of bound stars after gas expulsion is significantly altered. The Nbody6 code is used to simulate the cluster dynamics after gas expulsion for different SFEs. Concentrating on the most massive clusters observed in the Milky Way, we test to what extend the results depend on the model, i.e. stellar mass distribution, stellar density profile etc., and the cluster parameters, such as cluster density and size.We find that stellar interactions are responsible for up to 20% mass loss in the most compact massive clusters in the Milky Way, making ejections the prime mass loss process in such systems. Even in the loosely bound OB associations stellar interactions are responsible for at least ~5% mass loss. The main reason why the importance of encounters for massive clusters has been largely overlooked is the often used approach of a single-mass representation instead of a realistic distribution for the stellar masses. The density-dependence of the encounter-induced mass loss is shallower than expected because of the increasing importance of few-body interactions in dense clusters compared to sparse clusters where 2-body encounters dominate.

Field O stars: formed in situ or as runaways?

A significant fraction of massive stars in the Milky Way and other galaxies are located far from star clusters. It is known that some of these stars are runaways and therefore most likely were formed in embedded clusters and then ejected into the field because of dynamical few-body interactions or binary-supernova explosions. However, there exists a group of field O stars whose runaway status is difficult to prove via direct proper motion measurements or whose low space velocities and/or young ages appear to be incompatible with their large separation from known star clusters. The existence of this group led some authors to believe that field O stars can form in situ. In this paper, we examine the runaway status of the best candidates for isolated formation of massive stars in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds by searching for bow shocks around them, by using the new reduction of the Hipparcos data, and by searching for stellar systems from which they could originate within their lifetimes. We show that most of the known O stars thought to have formed in isolation are instead very likely runaways. We show also that the field must contain a population of O stars whose low space velocities and/or young ages are in apparent contradiction with the large separation of these stars from their parent clusters and/or the ages of these clusters. These stars (the descendants of runaway massive binaries) cannot be traced back to their parent clusters and therefore can be mistakenly considered as having formed in situ. We argue also that some field O stars could be detected in optical wavelengths only because they are runaways, while their cousins residing in the deeply embedded parent clusters might still remain totally obscured. The main conclusion of our study is that there is no significant evidence whatsoever in support of the in situ proposal on the origin of massive stars.

Few-Body Aspects of Hypernuclear Physics

Recent development in the study of the structure of light Λ and double Λ hypernuclei is reviewed from the view point of few-body problems and interactions between the constituent particles. In the study the present author and collaborators employed Gaussian expansion method for few-body calculations; the method has been applied to many kinds of few-body systems in the fields of nuclear physics and exotic atomic/molecular physics. We reviewed the following subjects studied using the method: (1) Precise three- and four-body calculations of $${^7_{\Lambda}{\rm He}}$$ , $${^7_{\Lambda}{\rm Li}}$$ , $${^7_{\Lambda}{\rm Be}}$$ , $${^8_{\Lambda}{\rm Li}}$$ , $${^8_{\Lambda}{\rm Be}}$$ , $${^9_{\Lambda}{\rm Be}}$$ , $${^{10}_{\Lambda}{\rm Be}}$$ , $${^{10}_{\Lambda}{\rm B}}$$ and $${^{13}_{\Lambda}{\rm C}}$$ provide important information on the spin structure of the underlying Λ N interaction by comparing the calculated results with the recent experimental data by γ-ray hypernuclear spectroscopy. (2) The Λ-Σ coupling effect was investigated in $${^4_{\Lambda}{\rm H}}$$ and $${^4_{\Lambda}{\rm He}}$$ on the basis of the N + N + N + Λ (Σ) four-body model. (3) A systematic study of double-Λ hypernuclei and the Λ Λ interaction, based on the NAGARA event data ( $${^6_{\Lambda\Lambda}{\rm He}}$$ ), was performed within the α + x + Λ + Λ cluster model (x = n, p, d, t,3He and α) and α + α + n + Λ + Λ cluster model, (4) The Demachi-Yanagi event was interpreted as observation of the 2+ state of $${^{10}_{\Lambda \Lambda}{\rm Be}}$$ , (5) The Hida event was interpreted as observation of the ground state of $${^{11}_{\Lambda \Lambda}{\rm Be}}$$ .

Observation of a Resonant Four-Body Interaction in Cold Cesium Rydberg Atoms

Cold Rydberg atoms subject to long-range dipole-dipole interactions represent a particularly interesting system for exploring few-body interactions and probing the transition from 2-body physics to the many-body regime. In this work we report the direct observation of a resonant 4-body Rydberg interaction. We exploit the occurrence of an accidental quasicoincidence of a 2-body and a 4-body resonant Stark-tuned Förster process in cesium to observe a resonant energy transfer requiring the simultaneous interaction of at least four neighboring atoms. These results are relevant for the implementation of quantum gates with Rydberg atoms and for further studies of many-body physics.

THE OBLIQUE ORBIT OF THE SUPER-NEPTUNE HAT-P-11b

We find the orbit of the Neptune-sized exoplanet HAT-P-11b to be highly inclined relative to the equatorial plane of its host star. This conclusion is based on spectroscopic observations of two transits, which allowed the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect to be detected with an amplitude of 1.5 m/s. The sky-projected obliquity is 103_{-10}^{+26} degrees. This is the smallest exoplanet for which spin-orbit alignment has been measured. The result favors a migration scenario involving few-body interactions followed by tidal dissipation. This finding also conforms with the pattern that the systems with the weakest tidal interactions have the widest spread in obliquities. We predict that the high obliquity of HAT-P-11 will be manifest in transit light curves from the Kepler spacecraft: starspot-crossing anomalies will recur at most once per stellar rotation period, rather than once per orbital period as they would for a well-aligned system.

Universal Fermi Gases in Mixed Dimensions

We investigate a two-species Fermi gas in which one species is confined in a two-dimensional plane (2D) or one-dimensional line (1D) while the other is free in the three-dimensional space (3D). We discuss the realization of such a system with the interspecies interaction tuned to resonance. When the mass ratio is in the range 0.0351<m_(2D)/m_(3D)<6.35 for the 2D-3D mixture or 0.006 46<m_(1D)/m_(3D)<2.06 for the 1D-3D mixture, the resulting system is stable against the Efimov effect and has universal properties. We calculate key quantities in the many-body phase diagram. Other possible scale-invariant systems with short-range few-body interactions are also elucidated.

Three-body forces produced by a similarity renormalization group transformation in a simple model

A simple class of unitary renormalization group transformations that force Hamiltonians towards a band-diagonal form produce few-body interactions in which low- and high-energy states are decoupled, which can greatly simplify many-body calculations. One such transformation has been applied to phenomenological and effective field theory nucleon–nucleon interactions with success, but further progress requires consistent treatment of at least the three-nucleon interaction. In this paper we demonstrate in an extremely simple model how these renormalization group transformations consistently evolve two- and three-body interactions towards band-diagonal form, and introduce a diagrammatic approach that generalizes to the realistic nuclear problem.

Wide Binaries from Few-Body Interactions

The orbital properties of wide binaries are modified by stellar encounters during their lifetimes as field stars. The few body process is particularly efficient right after the star formation in star clusters. In this article we review the orbital parameters which we expect from the few-body process. First, the solutions of the General Three-Body Problem are described, and then a detailed discussion of the theory relevant to binaries follows. Among other things, Opik's law of the distribution of semi- major axes of the binaries is derived. In addition, we summarize recent results from the few-body problem of extended bodies which may be relevant to the early dynamical evolution of protostellar clouds.

Possible theories of cold fusion

We review some of the key facts in the phenomenology of Pd-hydrides usually referred to as «cold fusion». We conclude that all theoretical attempts that concentrate only on few-body interactions, both electromagnetic and nuclear, are probably insufficient to explain such phenomena. On the other hand we find good indications that theories describing collective, coherent interactions among elementary constituents leading tomacroscopic quantum-mechanical effects belong to the class of possible theories of those phenomena.

Thermodynamical approach to few-body hadronic interactions

Thermodynamical approach to few-body hadronic interactions