The structure of the asymmetric helium trimer 3He 4He2

Despite their apparent simplicity, the properties of the two helium trimers, 4He3 and 3He4He2, are still not completely understood. In particular, the existence of a bound state of the asymmetric trimer 3He4He2 was established many years ago, using different theoretical approaches, and later it was experimentally detected. However its structural properties have not been thoroughly investigated so far, probably because an accurate theoretical description of this very weakly bound system is computationally quite demanding. In this work we give for the first time an accurate and complete theoretical description of the geometrical structure of this fragile system using quantum Monte Carlo techniques employing the TTY potential and compare its properties with those of 4He2 and 4He3. We compute average values of distances and angles, along with the angle−angle distribution function: a two- dimensional probability distribution well suited to discuss the shape of a trimer. Our analysis shows that the lighter isotope is very diffuse and can be found at large distances from the other two atoms, but also close to the center of mass of the system in nearly linear configurations. For this system the concept of “equilibrium structure” is meaningless and all kinds of three-atom configurations must be taken into account in its description.