Three-body forces: From cold atoms to nuclei

Understand

It is often assumed that few- and many-body systems can be accurately described by considering only pairwise two-body interactions of the constituents.

• We illustrate that three- and higher-body forces enter naturally in effective field theories and are especially prominent in strongly interacting quantum systems.
• We focus on three-body forces and discuss examples from atomic and nuclear physics.
• In particular, we highlight the importance and the challenges of three-nucleon forces for nuclear structure and reactions, including applications to astrophysics and fundamental symmetries.