Low-dimensional systems are an important field of current theoretical and experimental research. Recent technological developments provide many possible realizations of effectively one-dimensional systems. These devices promise to give us access to a new range of phenomena. It is therefore very interesting to develop theoretical methods specific for such systems to model their behavior and calculate the correlators of the resulting theory. Incidentally, one such method exists and is known as Bosonization. It can be applied to one-dimensional systems and effectively describes low energy excitations in a universal way. We use the example of a correlator known as the Emptiness Formation Probability to show that Bosonization fails to describe some long range correlators corresponding to large disturbances (the EFP measures the probability for the ground state of the system to develop a region without particles). We trace this failure to the fact that Bosonization is constructed as a linear approximation of the full theory and we set up to develop a collective description with the required non-linearity. The resulting scheme is essentially a Hydrodynamic paradigm for quantum systems. We show how to construct such a hydrodynamic description for a variety of exactly integrable models and illustrate how it can be used to make new predictions. For the special case of the spin-1/2 XY model we take advantage of the structure of the model to express the EFP as a determinant of a very special type of matrix, known as Toeplitz Matrix. We use the theory of Toeplitz determinants to calculate the asymptotic behavior of the EFP in the XY model and discuss its relation with the criticality of the theory.
Low-dimensional systems are an important field of current theoretical and experimental research. Recent technological developments provide many possible realizations of effectively one-dimensional systems. These devices promise to give us access to a new range of phenomena. It is therefore very interesting to develop theoretical methods specific for such systems to model their behavior and calculate the correlators of the resulting theory. Incidentally, one such method exists and is known as Bosonization. It can be applied to one-dimensional systems and effectively describes low energy excitations in a universal way. We use the example of a correlator known as the Emptiness Formation Probability to show that Bosonization fails to describe some long range correlators corresponding to large disturbances (the EFP measures the probability for the ground state of the system to develop a region without particles). We trace this failure to the fact that Bosonization is constructed as a linear approximation of the full theory and we set up to develop a collective description with the required non-linearity. The resulting scheme is essentially a Hydrodynamic paradigm for quantum systems. We show how to construct such a hydrodynamic description for a variety of exactly integrable models and illustrate how it can be used to make new predictions. For the special case of the spin-1/2 XY model we take advantage of the structure of the model to express the EFP as a determinant of a very special type of matrix, known as Toeplitz Matrix. We use the theory of Toeplitz determinants to calculate the asymptotic behavior of the EFP in the XY model and discuss its relation with the criticality of the theory.
A hydrodynamic approach is used to calculate an asymptotics of the Emptiness Formation Probability - the probability of a formation of an empty space in the ground state of a quantum one-dimensional many body system. Quantum hydrodynamics of a system is represented as a Euclidian path integral over configurations of hydrodynamic variables. In the limit of a large size of the empty space, the probability is dominated by an instanton configuration, and the problem is reduced to the finding of an instanton solution of classical hydrodynamic equations. After establishing a general formalism, we carry out this calculation for several simple systems -- free fermions with an arbitrary dispersion and Calogero-Sutherland model. For these systems we confirm the obtained results by comparison with exact results known in Random Matrix theory. We argue that the nonlinear hydrodynamic approach might be useful even in cases where the linearized hydrodynamics fails.
Recent ground-breaking experiments have realized strongly interacting quantum degenerate Fermi gas in a cold atomic system with tunable interactions. This has provided a table-top system which is extremely hydrodynamic in nature. This experimental realization helps us to investigate several aspects such as the interplay between nonlinearity, dissipation and dispersion. We find, for instance, that the dynamics in such a system shows near perfect agreement with a hydrodynamic theory. In collaboration with the group of John Thomas at Duke we interpreted studies of collision of two strongly interacting Fermi gases that led to shock waves which are a hallmark of nonlinear physics. Due to reasons such as the nature of interactions, higher dimensionality, these cold atomic systems are non-integrable and moreover the underlying field theory construction is mostly phenomenological in nature. On the other hand there are certain one-dimensional systems which are not only integrable but also facilitate more formal and rigorous ways of deriving the corresponding integrable field theories. One such family of models is the family of Calogero models (and their generalizations). They provide an extraordinary insight into the field of strongly correlated systems and hydrodynamics. We study the collective field theory of such models and address aspects of nonlinear physics such as Spin-Charge Interaction, Emptiness Formation Probability, Solitons etc; We derive a two-component nonlinear, nonlocal, integrable field theory. We also show that the Calogero family which is integrable even in an external harmonic trap (usually unavoidable in cold atom setups) is relatively short ranged thereby qualifying as a toy model for cold atom experiments. Transport in certain strongly correlated systems (impurity models) was studied using few low-dimensional techniques such as a 1/N diagrammatic expansion, Slave Boson Mean Field Theory and the Bethe Ansatz. A mesoscopic setup such as parallel quantum dots forms an ideal platform for such an investigation and comparison between different low-dimensional techniques. We studied transport, correlations and nature of the ground state of double quantum dots. We probed several non-perturbative aspects of this double-impurity model. For example, we showed that the RKKY interaction in closely spaced dots can be non-ferromagnetic due to its non-pertubative nature. This study helped us to point some discrepancies between different methods (such as the Numerical Renormalization Group). We give possible reasons for these discrepancies.
Describing the collective behavior of many body interacting systems is a central challenge in coldatom physics. Systems confined in one dimension are particularly interesting due to the fact thatin many cases they are integrable. In this work, we focus on such systems—specifically, Bose gasessolvable via the Bethe Ansatz. We begin the thesis by preparing the background, the tools and themotivation needed in the following, inlcuding a review of the Lieb-Liniger gas, it's Bethe Ansatz andthe recent advancements in the experimental realization of it. We include a brief introduction of thetheory of Generalized Hydrodynamics as well as effective field theoretical methods, such as theLuttinger liquid theory, used to compute correlation functions in ground states of low dimensionalsystems. We then turn to the study of lattice hard core bosons out- of euqilibrium. By computing analyticalresults for the one particle density matrix of a freely expanding system of hard-core bosons from aninitial double domain wall potential we provide a fully analytical treatment of the phenomenon ofdynamical quasicondensation and discuss the emergence of off-diagonal long range order. Next, we investigate the dynamics of hard-core bosons released from a domain wall initial statein the presence of two conformal defects. The observed density profile differs from the Euler-scalehydrodynamic description due to quantum interference effects. By analyzing boson propagators, weshow that repeated scattering on the defects leads to interference patterns that cannot be capturedby the hydrodynamic approach. We derive an analytic expression for the density profile during freeexpansion and demonstrate that a modified semi-classical scattering framework is required for thedescription of systems with such conformal defects. The final part of thesis deals with the calculation of the one particle density matrix of Lieb-Lingergas in smooth trapping potentials at finite temperature and interaction strengths. We introduce amethod to obtain such correlation functions by combining long-distance asymptotics with knownshort distance expansions. For the limits of weak and strong interactions we derive analytical re-sults, as well as a general protocol for computing one-particle correlations at any arbitrary repulsiveinteraction strengths. We include a detailed explanation of the numerical method used to computeGreen's functions of field of the effective theory needed as an input to our procedure. We benchmarkour results by comparing them to exact numerical calculations and to recent experimental findings.
For many years, the Luttinger liquid theory has served as a useful paradigm for the description of one-dimensional (1D) quantum fluids in the limit of low energies. This theory is based on a linearization of the dispersion relation of the particles constituting the fluid. Recent progress in understanding 1D quantum fluids beyond the low-energy limit is reviewed, where the nonlinearity of the dispersion relation becomes essential. The novel methods which have been developed to tackle such systems combine phenomenology built on the ideas of the Fermi-edge singularity and the Fermi-liquid theory, perturbation theory in the interaction strength, and new ways of treating finite-size properties of integrable models. These methods can be applied to a wide variety of 1D fluids, from 1D spin liquids to electrons in quantum wires to cold atoms confined by 1D traps. Existing results for various dynamic correlation functions are reviewed, in particular, the dynamic structure factor and the spectral function. Moreover, it is shown how a dispersion nonlinearity leads to finite particle lifetimes and its impact on the transport properties of 1D systems at finite temperatures is discussed. The conventional Luttinger liquid theory is a special limit of the new theory, and the relation between the two is explained.
Describing emergent macroscopic phenomena in low spatial dimensions is known to be notoriously challenging, primarily due to strong interactions that render perturbative approaches inapplicable. On the other hand, low-dimensional systems host a wealth of unorthodox phenomena. A prominent example is the emergence of superdiffusive transport in one-dimensional interacting systems, traditionally studied in the framework of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics. After identifying and discussing internal inconsistencies in the previous formulations, in this work we develop a general and systematic approach for constructing effective field theories of one-dimensional hydrodynamic systems in the form of coupled stochastic Langevin-type equations compatible with the physical requirements of local equilibrium states such as the thermodynamic Maxwell relation and fluctuation-dissipation symmetry. We implemented a general numerical integration scheme and exemplified our construction on a simple model of two interacting hydrodynamic modes with a non-Gaussian stationary equilibrium measure.
In this thesis, we study the physical properties of several ultracold few-boson systems depending on the interactions between their constituents. Nowadays, experimentally, it is possible to have great control with high precision over the geometry and the interactions between the particles, making them an excellent setup to test directly the principles of quantum mechanics. A very interesting point is to study the evolution of their properties with the number of particles. The theoretical study of these systems pretends to microscopically understand the current experimental results and give support to new experimental developments.\n\n\t\t\t\t The method that will be used is the exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian of the system. As we will see, in spite of the attempts to improve it, the method is limited by the fact that, in practice, it is only useful to study few-particle systems. The method has several advantages. First of all, one has access to both the ground and the excited states. In second place, the method is variational and converges to the exact solution as long as the Hilbert space in which we diagonalize is enlarged.\n\t\t\t\t Moreover, since we have access to the states of the system, it is possible to calculate any observable quantity of interest.\n\n\t\t\t\t First, we will study a system of spinless bosons trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential. The effect of the trap is to keep the system bound. It will be seen how the presence of a repulsive interaction changes the energy spectrum and other properties of the system. For instance, the density profile, which is usually measurable, and also the two-body distribution function, which is intimately related to the existence of correlations.\n\n\t\t\t\t Afterwards, the focus will be on the particular case of having only two bosons in the system interacting through a strong repulsive force. Inspired by the one-dimensional case where the fermionization phenomenon takes place in the strongly-interacting limit, we will study whether in two dimensions there is a resembling reminiscent effect. In other words, we will analyze if there are properties of the two strongly-interacting bosons in two dimensions that are like the ones of two noninteracting fermions.\n\n\t\t\t\t After that, we will tackle the localization phenomenon in a one-dimensional system that is caused by an external speckle potential that introduces disorder in the system. We will show that the localization is a robust phenomenon against repulsive contact interactions.\n\n\t\t\t\t Finally, we will study the influence of the spin-orbit coupling in a system of bosons with two possible pseudospin components, associated, for instance, to two hyperfine levels, confined in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. We will present an exhaustive analysis of the combined effects of the interaction and the spin-orbit coupling in the spectrum and the properties of the system. In particular we show the existence of a crossover in the ground state of the system susceptible to be experimentally identified.