Internal motions in three-body bosonic Thomson atoms

A three-body bosonic Thomson atom, namely a system of three charged bosons in a harmonic trap, with a very large Wigner parameter, has been studied. T he states with zero angular momentum and even parity denoted as 0(n)(+) hav e been calculated and analysed; the basic modes of excitation of this syste m have been revealed. It was found that each lower 0(n)(+) state (n is from 1 to 5) has its own means of internal motion. Although the size of the sys tem is very sensitive to the strength of the trap, the other features are f ound to be insensitive to the strength if the system remains in the Wigner regime. The breathing mode was Found to be the easiest to excite.