Bound States of $$2+1$$ Fermionic Trimers on Lattice at Strong Couplings

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the bound states of $$2+1$$ 2 + 1 fermionic trimers on a three-dimensional lattice at strong coupling. Specifically, we analyze the discrete spectrum of the associated three-body discrete Schrödinger operator $$H_{\gamma ,\lambda }(K),$$ H γ , λ ( K ) , focusing on energies below the continuum and within its gap. Depending on the quasi-momentum K , we show that if the mass ratio $$\gamma >0$$ γ > 0 between the identical fermions and the third particle is below a certain threshold, the operator lacks a discrete spectrum below the essential spectrum for sufficiently large coupling $$\lambda >0.$$ λ > 0 . Conversely, if $$\gamma $$ γ exceeds this threshold, $$H_{\gamma ,\lambda }(K)$$ H γ , λ ( K ) admits at least one eigenvalue below the essential spectrum. Similar phenomena are observed in the neighborhood of the two-particle branch of the essential spectrum, which resides within the gap and grows sublinearly as $$\lambda \rightarrow +\infty .$$ λ → + ∞ . For $$K=0,$$ K = 0 , the mass ratio thresholds are explicitly calculated and it turns out that, for certain intermediate mass ratios and large couplings, bound states emerge within the gap, although ground states are absent.