The spectra of mixed $^3$He-$^4$He droplets

2005

The diffusion Monte Carlo technique is used to calculate and analyze the excitation spectrum of $^3$He atoms bound to a cluster of $^4$He atoms, by using a previously determined optimum filling of single-fermion orbits with well defined orbital angular momentum $L$, spin $S$ and parity quantum numbers. The study concentrates on the energies and shapes of the three kinds of states for which the fermionic part of the wave function is a single Slater determinant: maximum $L$ or maximum $S$ states within a given orbit, and fully polarized clusters. The picture that emerges is that of systems with strong shell effects whose binding and excitation energies are essentially determined over configur…