Three-Body Recombination in Cold Atomic Gases

Abstract

Systems of three particles show a surprising feature in their bound state spectrum: a series of geometrically scaled states, known as Efimov states. These states have not yet been observed directly, but many recent experiments show indirect evidence of their existence via the so-called recombination process. The theories that predict the Efimov states also predicts either resonant enhancement of the recombination process or suppression by destructive interference, depending on the sign of the interaction between the particles. The theories predict universal features for the Efimov states, for instance that the geometric scaling factor is 22.7, meaning that one state is 22.7 times larger than its lower lying neighbour state. This thesis seeks to investigate non-universal effects by incorporating additional information about the physical interactions into the universal theories.