Universal few-body physics in a harmonic trap

Understand

Few-body systems with resonant short-range interactions display universal properties that do not depend on the details of their structure or their interactions at short distances.

• In the three-body system, these properties include the existence of a geometric spectrum of three-body Efimov states and a discrete scaling symmetry.
• Similar universal properties appear in 4-body and possibly higher-body systems as well.
• We set up an effective theory for few-body systems in a harmonic trap and study the modification of universal physics for 3- and 4-particle systems in external confinement.