Optical and Quantum Electronics
Confinement-induced phase transitions and quantum optical signatures in optically trapped quantum rod systems
Maurice Tiotsop, Polynice Diffo Nguedia, A. J. Fotué
Abstract
Abstract We present a theoretical study of confinement-induced quantum phase transitions in optically trapped atomic gases confined to rod-shaped quasi-one-dimensional geometries, and identify their signatures in experimentally accessible optical observables. The rod aspect ratio η = L/(2R) provides a geometric knob for tuning the effective one-dimensional coupling parameter γ ∝ η: increasing the rod length at fixed atom number reduces the linear density and drives the system from the weakly interacting regime through the Tonks–Girardeau (TG) fermionization limit for bosons, and from a Fermi liquid into a strongly correlated Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid (TLL) phase for fermions. Using the Lieb–Liniger model extended to finite temperature via Yang–Yang thermodynamics, and TLL bosonisation for fermions, we compute the phase diagram in the (γ, T/TF ) plane, first- and second-order spatial correlation functions g (1) and g (2) , the isothermal compressibility κ(μ, T ), and the local density fluctuations ⟨(δˆn) 2 ⟩. We show that the zero-distance second-order coherence g (2) (0) provides an unambiguous optical signal distinguishing all relevant phases: g (2) (0) ≈ 1 for the quasicondensate, g (2) (0) ≈ 0 in the TG limit, and g(2)(0) ≈ K c (γ)/2 < 1/2 in the TLL regime, where K c is the Luttinger parameter. These predictions are measurable via Hanbury Brown–Twiss atom interferometry, single-atom fluorescence imaging, and matter-wave interference in optical rod traps. Our results establish the rod aspect ratio as a design parameter for engineering correlated quantum phases and demonstrate optical coherence as their natural experimental readout.