  Three interacting particles form a system which is well known for its complex
physical behavior. A landmark theoretical result in few-body quantum physics is
Efimov's prediction of a universal set of weakly bound trimer states appearing
for three identical bosons with a resonant two-body interaction. Surprisingly,
these states even exist in the absence of a corresponding two-body bound state
and their precise nature is largely independent of the particular type of the
two-body interaction potential. Efimov's scenario has attracted great interest
in many areas of physics; an experimental test however has not been achieved.
We report the observation of an Efimov resonance in an ultracold thermal gas of
cesium atoms. The resonance occurs in the range of large negative two-body
scattering lengths and arises from the coupling of three free atoms to an
Efimov trimer. We observe its signature as a giant three-body recombination
loss when the strength of the two-body interaction is varied near a Feshbach
resonance. This resonance develops into a continuum resonance at non-zero
collision energies, and we observe a shift of the resonance position as a
function of temperature. We also report on a minimum in the recombination loss
for positive scattering lengths, indicating destructive interference of decay
pathways. Our results confirm central theoretical predictions of Efimov physics
and represent a starting point from which to explore the universal properties
of resonantly interacting few-body systems.
