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One-Dimensional Traps, Two-Body Interactions, Few-Body Symmetries

Nathan L. Harshman

Published Jan 1, 2016• 5 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This is the first in a pair of articles that classify the configuration space and kinematic symmetry groups for $N$ identical particles in one-dimensional traps experiencing Galilean-invariant two-body interactions. These symmetries explain degeneracies in the few-body spectrum and demonstrate how tuning the trap shape and the particle interactions can manipulate these degeneracies. The additional symmetries that emerge in the non-interacting limit and in the unitary limit of an infinitely strong contact interaction are sufficient to algebraically solve for the spectrum and degeneracy in terms of the one-particle observables. Symmetry also determines the degree to which the algebraic expressions for energy level shifts by weak interactions or nearly-unitary interactions are universal, i.e. independent of trap shape and details of the interaction. Identical fermions and bosons with and without spin are considered. This article sequentially analyzes the symmetries of one, two and three particles in asymmetric, symmetric, and harmonic traps; the sequel article treats the $N$ particle case.

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This is the first in a pair of articles that classify the configuration space and kinematic symmetry groups for NNN identical particles in one-dimensional traps experiencing Galilean-invariant two-body interactions. These symmetries explain degeneracies in the few-body spectrum and demonstrate how tuning the trap shape and the particle interactions can manipulate these degeneracies. The additional symmetries that emerge in the non-interacting limit and in the unitary limit of an infinitely strong contact interaction are sufficient to algebraically solve for the spectrum and degeneracy in terms of the one-particle observables. Symmetry also determines the degree to which the algebraic expressions for energy level shifts by weak interactions or nearly-unitary interactions are universal, i.e. independent of trap shape and details of the interaction. Identical fermions and bosons with and without spin are considered. This article sequentially analyzes the symmetries of one, two and three particles in asymmetric, symmetric, and harmonic traps; the sequel article treats the NNN particle case.
This article investigates the properties of a few interacting particles trapped in a few wells and how these properties change under adiabatic tuning of interaction strength and interwell tunneling. While some system properties are dependent on the specific shapes of the traps and the interactions, this article applies symmetry analysis to identify generic features in the spectrum of stationary states of few-particle, few-well systems. Extended attention is given to a simple but flexible three-parameter model of two particles in two wells in one dimension. A key insight is that two limiting cases, hard-core repulsion and no interwell tunneling, can both be treated as emergent symmetries of the few-particle Hamiltonian. These symmetries are the mathematical consequences of infinite barriers in configuration space. They are necessary to explain the pattern of degeneracies in the energy spectrum, to understand how degeneracies are broken for models away from limiting cases, and to explain separability and integrability. These symmetry methods are extendable to more complicated models and the results have practical consequences for stable state control in few-particle, few-well systems with ultracold atoms in optical traps.
This contributed conference proceeding reviews some results about a system of a few identical particles with spin trapped in one-dimensional potentials and experiencing two-body interactions. The focus is on how symmetry, integrability, and solvability depend on the trap shape, two-body interaction, the number of particles, and the number of spin components. A series of comments are presented that characterize the minimal symmetries possible for a composite system constructed from interacting single particles, with special focus on the contact interaction. For five and more particles with internal components like spin, a kind of universality called algebraically solvability is lost.
Energy level splitting from the unitary limit of contact interactions to the near unitary limit for a few identical atoms in an effectively one-dimensional well can be understood as an example of symmetry breaking. At the unitary limit in addition to particle permutation symmetry there is a larger symmetry corresponding to exchanging the N ! possible orderings of N particles. In the near unitary limit, this larger symmetry is broken, and different shapes of traps break the symmetry to different degrees. This brief note exploits these symmetries to present a useful, geometric analogy with graph theory and build an algebraic framework for calculating energy splitting in the near unitary limit.
This paper introduces a model for a few repulsively interacting particles trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic well and provides exact solutions for the three-particle case. This model is a hybrid of two other well-known systems, the Calogero model and the contact-interaction model, and coincides with them in limiting cases. However, those models have purely two-body interactions whereas this model has intrinsically few-body interactions. Comparing these three models provides clarifying distinctions among the properties of symmetry, separability, and integrability. The model's analytic solutions provide a useful basis to improve approximation schemes, especially near the unitary limit of hard-core contact interactions.
The stationary states of a few bosons in a one-dimensional harmonic trap are investigated throughout the crossover from weak to strongly attractive interactions. For sufficient attraction, three different classes of states emerge: (i) N -body bound states, (ii) bound states of smaller fragments and (iii) gas-like states that fermionize, that is, map to ideal fermions in the limit of infinite attraction. The two-body correlations and momentum spectra characteristic of the three classes are discussed, and the results are illustrated using the soluble two-particle model.
Spectroscopic labels for a few particles with spin that are harmonically trapped in one dimension with effectively zero-range interactions are provided by quantum numbers that characterize the symmetries of the Hamiltonian: permutations of identical particles, parity inversion, and the separability of the center-of-mass. The exact solutions for the noninteracting and infinitely repulsive cases are reduced with respect to these symmetries. This reduction explains how states of single-component and multicomponent fermions and bosons transform under adiabatic evolution from noninteracting to strong hard-core repulsion. These spectroscopic methods also clarify previous analytic and numerical results for intermediate values of interaction strength. Several examples, including adiabatic mapping for two-component fermionic states in the cases N=3−−5N=3--5N=3−−5, are provided.