Four-boson system with short-range interactions

Abstract

We consider the nonrelativistic four-boson system with short-range forces and large scattering length in an effective quantum mechanics approach. We construct the effective interaction potential at leading order in the large scattering length and compute the four-body binding energies using the Yakubovsky equations. Cutoff independence of the four-body binding energies does not require the introduction of a four-body force. This suggests that two- and three-body interactions are sufficient to renormalize the four-body system. We apply the equations to $^{4}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}$ atoms and calculate the binding energy of the $^{4}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}$ tetramer. We observe a correlation between the trimer and tetramer binding energies similar to the Tjon line in nuclear physics. Over the range of binding energies relevant to $^{4}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}$ atoms, the correlation is approximately linear.