Hints of universal behavior seen in exotic three-atom states

the seventeenth century Isaac Newton derived the classical force laws used to calculate the force between two objects. Calculating the behavior of three-body groupings such as the Moon/Earth/Sun system was much harder; indeed Newton never succeeded. Nowadays such problems can be studied with powerful computers, but only numerical simulations are possible, and not exact, analytical solutions.

In 1970, however, Russian physicist Vitaly Efimov predicted that under some special conditions, three bodies, such as atoms at ultralow temperatures, could be made to enter into stable states whose behavior could be calculated with remarkable ease

i love unexpected, as it usually means something happening that requires investigation

as predicted by vitaly, the trinary bound state of cesium atoms have some very strange properties above and beyond a "simple" bose einstien condensate.

the strange parts to note are the three atoms are bound into a mauch larger size than the combined size of the three atoms and that some particles or atoms that would normally be unstable in two pair would form a trinity for short periods of time.

The effective size of these Efimov-triplets is referred to as the three-body parameter. In the case of the four cesium states seen so far, the value is just about the same, about 50 nm, or about 500 times the size of a hydrogen atom. This, combined with the three-body-parameter values observed in experiments for lithium and possibly for other elements being studied right now, suggests that while adjusting for the size of the respective atoms all the species are behaving in the same way. This kind of universality was totally unexpected.

source

so the trinary state is a stable low cost solution built into nature that can allow for some strange results at low temps.

i wounder what would happen if three Efimov-triplets were themsevles in a triplet arangement?
lol


xploder

Haha, great post. I'm going to digest the implications of this for a while and check back in later.