Three-body recombination in Bose gases with large scattering length

An effective field theory for the three-body system with large scattering l ength is applied to three-body recombination to a weakly bound s-wave state in a Bose gas. Our model independent analysis demonstrates that the three- body recombination constant alpha is not universal, but can take any value between zero and 67.9ha(4)/m, where a is the scattering length. Other low-e nergy three-body observables can be predicted in terms of a and alpha. Near a Feshbach resonance, alpha should oscillate between those limits as the m agnetic field B approaches the point where a --> infinity. In any interval of B over which a increases by a factor of 22.7, alpha should have a zero.