Ground-state energy and stability limit of $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ droplets

Ground-state energy and stability limit of ${}^{3}{He}$ droplets

E. Sola, J. Casulleras, and J. Boronat

Phys. Rev. B 73, 092515 – Published 30 March 2006

Abstract

Small and stable drops of ${}^{3}{He}$ atoms can only exist above a minimum number of particles, due to the combination of the ${}^{3}{He}$ atom Fermi statistics and its light mass. An accurate estimation of this minimum number using microscopic theory has been difficult due to the inhomogeneous and fermionic nature of these systems. We present a diffusion Monte Carlo calculation of ${}^{3}{He}$ drops with sizes near the minimum in order to determine the stability threshold. The results show that the minimum self-bound drop is formed by $N = 30$ atoms with preferred orbitals for open shells corresponding to maximum value of the spin.