One-particle density matrix and momentum distribution of the out-of-equilibrium one-dimensional Tonks-Girardeau gas: Analytical results at large N

Abstract

In one-dimensional (1D) quantum gases, the momentum distribution (MD) of the atoms is a standard experimental observable, routinely measured in various experimental setups. The MD is sensitive to correlations, and it is notoriously hard to compute theoretically for large numbers of atoms $N$, which often prevents direct comparison with experimental data. Here we report significant progress on this problem for the 1D Tonks-Girardeau (TG) gas in the asymptotic limit of large $N$, at zero temperature and driven out of equilibrium by a quench of the confining potential. We find an exact analytical formula for the one-particle density matrix $\ensuremath{\langle}{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}(x)\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}({x}^{\ensuremath{'}})\ensuremath{\rangle}$ of the out-of-equilibrium TG gas in the $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, valid on distances $|x\ensuremath{-}{x}^{\ensuremath{'}}|$ much larger than the interparticle distance. By comparing with time-dependent Bose-Fermi mapping numerics, we demonstrate that our analytical formula can be used to compute the out-of-equilibrium MD with great accuracy for a wide range of momenta (except in the tails of the distribution at very large momenta). For a quench from a double-well potential to a single harmonic well, which mimics a ``quantum Newton cradle'' setup, our method predicts the periodic formation of peculiar, multiply peaked, momentum distributions.