Universality in a one-dimensional three-body system

Abstract

We study a heavy-heavy-light three-body system confined to one space dimension. Both binding energies and corresponding wave functions are obtained for (i) the zero-range, and (ii) two finite-range attractive heavy-light interaction potentials. In case of the zero-range potential, we apply the method of Skorniakov and Ter-Martirosian to explore the accuracy of the Born-Oppenheimer approach. For the finite-range potentials, we solve the Schr\"odinger equation numerically using a pseudospectral method. We demonstrate that when the two-body ground state energy approaches zero, the three-body bound states display a universal behavior, independent of the shape of the interaction potential.