Stabilization of three-body resonances to bound states in a continuum

Abstract

Three-body resonances are ubiquitous in quantum few-body physics and are characterized by a finite lifetime before decaying into continuum states of their composing subsystems. In this work we present a theoretical study on the possibility to stabilize three-body resonances to so-called bound states in a continuum: resonances with vanishing width that do not decay. Within a two-channel approach we unveil the underlying mechanism and show how the lifetime can be made infinitely long by a continuous tuning of system parameters. The validity of our theory is illustrated in two different examples: a mass-imbalanced system in one dimension and a system of three identical bosons in three dimensions, relevant to Efimov physics. Crucially, for the latter we find that one of the parameters that can be tuned to achieve a three-body bound state in a continuum is an external magnetic field, a common tunable variable in cold-atom experiments. Due to the generality of this stabilization effect, it is expected to be applicable to a wide range of unstable few-body systems, opening new perspectives for fundamental studies as well as technical applications.