Quantum Halo States in Helium Tetramers

The universality of quantum halo states enables a comparison of systems from different fields of physics, as demonstrated in two- and three-body clusters. In the present work, we studied weakly bound helium tetramers in order to test whether some of these four-body realistic systems qualify as halos. Their ground-state binding energies and structural properties were thoroughly estimated using the diffusion Monte Carlo method with pure estimators. Helium tetramer properties proved to be less sensitive on the potential model than previously evaluated trimer properties. We predict the existence of realistic four-body halo ⁴He₂³He₂, whereas ⁴He₄ and ⁴He₃³He are close to the border and thus can be used as prototypes of quasi-halo systems. Our results could be tested by the experimental determination of the tetramers' structural properties using a setup similar to the one developed for the study of helium trimers.