Universal physics of three bosons with isospin

Abstract

We show that there exist two types of universal phenomena for three-boson systems with isospin degrees of freedom. In the isospin symmetric limit, there is only one universal three-boson bound state with the total isospin one, whose binding energy is proportional to that of the two-boson bound state. With large isospin symmetry breaking, the standard Efimov states of three identical bosons appear at low energies. Both phenomena can be realized by three pions with the pion mass appropriately tuned in lattice QCD simulations, or by spin-one bosons in cold atom experiments. Implication to the in-medium softening of multi-pion states is also discussed.