Three-body bound states with zero-range interaction in the Bethe-Salpeter approach

The Bethe-Salpeter equation for three bosons with zero-range interaction is solved for the first time. For comparison the light-front equation is also solved. The input is the two-body scattering length and the outputs are the three-body binding energies, Bethe-Salpeter amplitudes and light-front wave functions. Three different regimes are analyzed: (i) For weak enough two-body interaction the three-body system is unbound. (ii) For stronger two-body interaction a three-body bound state appears. It provides an interesting example of a deeply bound Borromean system. (iii) For even stronger two-body interaction this state becomes unphysical with a negative mass squared. However, another physical (excited) state appears, found previously in light-front calculations. The Bethe-Salpeter approach implicitly incorporates three-body forces of relativistic origin, which are attractive and increase the binding energy.