Low Energy Excitations of 1D Fermi Gases

Abstract

Fermions in one dimension are vastly different from their higher-dimension counterparts. At the same time, many theoretical models in one dimension have the luxury of being integrable and exactly solvable, which makes them excellent test beds for quantum simulation. In using these test beds, we can understand and improve on the techniques of quantum simulation so that we move towards solving difficult problems that cannot be solved using other methods due to the sheer complexity of these systems. In this work, we prepare one-dimensional fermions using cold atom techniques and probe low-energy excitations in such systems. We do so using the technique of Bragg spectroscopy, which enables us to probe the dynamical structure factor of the system directly, which in turn tells us about the density-density and spin-density correlations in the system. Utilizing the extreme tunability of cold atom experiments, we can study different regimes of these 1D Fermi gases. In particular, moving on from our previous investigations in the repulsive interactions, we investigate the attractive interaction side, where the attraction of the fermions causes bound states to form. The binding energy of these bound states causes a gap in the spin excitation, a hallmark of a new class of model: Luther-Emery liquid. We investigate weakly attractive Fermi gases close to the Luther-Emery limit and observe an inversion of the spin-charge separation hierarchy compared to the repulsive side, confirming expectations from exact Bethe ansatz solutions for the homogeneous gas at zero temperature, in which weakly bound fermion pairs are predicted. The result presented here provides insight into physics in one dimension, an important realm that is well known to host many exciting physics and exotic phases.