Dynamical excitation processes and correlations of three-body two-dimensional mixtures

Abstract

A scheme is proposed to dynamically excite distinct eigenstate superpositions in three-body Bose-Fermi mixtures confined in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. The system is initialized in a non-interacting state with a variable spatial extent, and the scattering lengths are subsequently quenched. For spatial widths smaller than the three-body harmonic oscillator length, a superposition of trimers and atom-dimers is dynamically attained, otherwise trap states are predominantly populated. Accordingly, the Tan contacts evince the build-up of short range two- and three-body correlations in the course of the evolution. A larger spatial extent of the initial state leads to a reduction of few-body correlations, endowed however with characteristic peaks at the positions of the avoided-crossings in the energy spectra, thereby signalling the participation of atom-dimers. Our results expose ways to dynamically excite selectively trimers, atom-dimers and trapped few-body states characterized by substantial correlations and likely to be accessible within current experiments.