Triatomic continuum resonances for large negative scattering lengths - art. no. 0410702

We study triatomic systems in the regime of large negative scattering lengths which may be more favorable for the formation of condensed trimers in trapped ultracold monoatomic gases as the competition with the weakly bound dimers is absent. The manipulation of the scattering length can turn an excited weakly bound Efimov trimer into a continuum resonance. Its energy and width are described by universal scaling functions written in terms of the scattering length and the binding energy B-3 of the shallowest triatomic molecule. For a(-1)<-0.0297rootmB(3)/(h) over bar (2), the excited Efimov state turns into a continuum resonance.