Three-body systems in physics of cold atoms and halo nuclei

Abstract

Few-body systems, such as cold atoms and halo nuclei, share universal features at low energies, which are insensitive to the underlying inter-particle interactions at short ranges. These low-energy properties can be investigated in the framework of effective field theory with two-body and three-body contact interactions. I review the effective-field-theory studies of universal physics in three-body systems, focusing on the application in cold atoms and halo nuclei.

Comments: Review article commissioned for the International Journal of Modern Physics E special issue on "Effective Field Theory in Nuclear Physics"; 26 pages