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Quantum physics

A ménage à trois laid bare

Nature volume 440, pages 289–290 (2006)Cite this article

Quantum bodies that can't settle down together in pairs get on fine in a cosy threesome. This startling claim about the private life of particles has just seen its first experimental confirmation.

In 1970, Vitaly Efimov, possessor of a freshly minted Russian PhD in theoretical nuclear physics, predicted a bizarre quantum-mechanical effect1: a system consisting of three particles, none of whose two-particle subsystems is stable, can, under certain circumstances, produce an infinite number of bound energy levels. That prediction has been a source of concern for theorists ever since. Yet time and again, attempts to disprove the ‘Efimov effect’ have only verified its existence, albeit — until now — purely theoretically. In this issue, more than 35 years on from the initial prediction, Kraemer et al. (page 315)2 present the first convincing experimental evidence for the effect.

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Figure 1: Floppy triangles.
Figure 2: Features predicted7,8,9,10,11 and observed2 in ultracold three-body recombination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, 66506, Kansas, USA

    Brett D. Esry

  2. the Department of Physics and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309-0440, Colorado, USA

    Chris H. Greene

Authors
  1. Brett D. Esry
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  2. Chris H. Greene
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Esry, B., Greene, C. A ménage à trois laid bare. Nature 440, 289–290 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/440289b

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