Analysis of three-body potentials in systems of rare-gas atoms: Axilrod-Teller versus three-atom exchange interactions

The triple-dipole (Axilrod-Teller) and the exchange three-atom potentials are compared for a number of specific arrangements of three argon and xenon atoms. For these configurations, total potentials are constructed, taking a Lennard-Jones (6-12) potential for each pair. It is found that for all arrangements the exchange three-atom potential is by far the more important correction to the two-body interaction. Qualitatively, the changes with respect to the two-body potential are more pronounced for xenon than for argon.