Three-body spectrum in a finite volume: the role of cubic symmetry

Abstract: The three-particle quantization condition is partially diagonalized in the center-of-mass frame by using cubic symmetry on the lattice. To this end, instead of spherical harmonics, the kernel of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for particle-dimer scattering is expanded in the basis functions of different irreducible representations of the octahedral group. Such a projection is of particular importance for the three-body problem in the finite volume due to the occurrence of three-body singularities above breakup. Additionally, we study the numerical solution and properties of such a projected quantization condition in a simple model. It is shown that, for large volumes, these solutions allow for an instructive interpretation of the energy eigenvalues in terms of bound and scattering states.