We investigate degenerate quantum gases in one dimension, trapped in a harmonic potential which is split centrally by a point-like potential. Since the single-particle eigenfunctions of such a system are known for all strengths of the central potential, the dynamics for non-interacting fermionic gases and low-density, strongly interacting bosonic gases can be investigated exactly using the Fermi–Bose mapping theorem. We calculate the exact many-particle ground state wavefunctions for both particle species, investigate soliton-like solutions, and compare the bosonic system to the well known physics of Bose gases described by the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. We also address the experimentally important questions of the creation and detection of such states.
We investigate degenerate quantum gases in one dimension, trapped in a harmonic potential which is split centrally by a point-like potential. Since the single-particle eigenfunctions of such a system are known for all strengths of the central potential, the dynamics for non-interacting fermionic gases and low-density, strongly interacting bosonic gases can be investigated exactly using the Fermi–Bose mapping theorem. We calculate the exact many-particle ground state wavefunctions for both particle species, investigate soliton-like solutions, and compare the bosonic system to the well known physics of Bose gases described by the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. We also address the experimentally important questions of the creation and detection of such states.
We investigate low-density, quantum-degenerate gases in the presence of a localized attractive potential in the centre of a one-dimensional harmonic trap. The attractive potential is modelled using a parameterized δ-function, allowing us to determine all single-particle eigenfunctions analytically. From these we calculate the ground-state many-body properties for a system of spin-polarized fermions and, using the Bose–Fermi mapping theorem, extend the results to strongly interacting bosonic systems. We discuss the single-particle densities, the pair-correlation functions, the reduced single-particle density matrices and the momentum distributions as a function of the particle number and strength of the attractive point potential. As an important experimental observable, we place special emphasis on spatial coherence properties of such samples.
We investigate low-density, quantum-degenerate gases in the presence of a localised attractive potential in the centre of a one-dimensional harmonic trap.The attractive potential is modelled using a parameterised delta-function, allowing us to determine all single particle eigenfunctions analytically. From these we calculate the ground state many-body properties for a system of spin-polarised fermions and, using the Bose-Fermi mapping theorem, extend the results to strongly interacting bosonic systems. We discuss the single particle densities, the pair correlation functions, the reduced single particle density matrices and the momentum distributions as a function of particle number and strength of the attractive point potential. As an important experimental observable, we place special emphasis on spatial coherence properties of such samples.
Quantum many-body physics has been studied for many decades. A lot of intriguing phenomena have been observed and theories have been developed. Yet many problems remain unsolved, which is largely due to a lack of general efficient classical computation method. One-dimensional (1D) systems have also drawn much attention over the past few decades. One reason is that many unique strongly correlated quantum phenomena only appear in low dimensions. Another reason is that many exact results can be obtained in 1D for cross benchmarking, such as Bethe Ansatz, Bosonization, Bose-Fermi mapping, etc. In addition, many numerical methods, such as Matrix-Product-State based and Monte Carlo methods, work most efficiently in 1D. In recent years, 1D quantum gases have been realized in many cold atom labs, providing experimental motivation for their studies. One of the most mysterious assumptions about a system of identical quantum particles is that the wavefunction must be symmetric (for bosons) or anti-symmetric (for fermions). This means that no two fermions can occupy the same state, while multiple occupancy is allowed for bosons. Bosons and fermions are therefore generally very different. But in 1D this distinction could become rather subtle, provided that the bosonic multiple occupancy is suppressed, which can happen if strong repulsion exists between them. However, when considering spin degrees of freedom, things become more complicated. In this work, we develop a generalized Bose-Fermi mapping theory, under which, the charge degrees of freedom is mapped to a spinless fermions, while the spin degrees of freedom to an effective spin chain. This mapping works for arbitrary spin, arbitrary trapping potentials, arbitrary spin-dependent interaction potential, and for either spinor bosons or fermions. In the strong interaction limit, the wavefunction of the system is represented by the strong coupling ansatz wavefunction (SCAW), which takes the form of a direct product of spinless fermions wavefunction and spin wavefunction. Using this mapping technique, we study the dynamics and collective modes of the system. Furthermore, we develop a very efficient method to calculate the one-body density matrix, from which we can calculate the momentum distribution of the system.
Abstract In this paper we study a mixed system of bosons and fermions with up to six particles in total. All particles are assumed to have the same mass. The two-body interactions are repulsive and are assumed to have equal strength in both the Bose–Bose and the Fermi–Boson channels. The particles are confined externally by a harmonic oscillator one-body potential. For the case of four particles, two identical fermions and two identical bosons, we focus on the strongly interacting regime and analyze the system using both an analytical approach and density matrix renormalization group calculations using a discrete version of the underlying continuum Hamiltonian. This provides us with insight into both the ground state and the manifold of excited states that are almost degenerate for large interaction strength. Our results show great variation in the density profiles for bosons and fermions in different states for strongly interacting mixtures. By moving to slightly larger systems, we find that the ground state of balanced mixtures of four to six particles tends to separate bosons and fermions for strong (repulsive) interactions. On the other hand, in imbalanced Bose–Fermi mixtures we find pronounced odd–even effects in systems of five particles. These few-body results suggest that question of phase separation in one-dimensional confined mixtures are very sensitive to system composition, both for the ground state and the excited states.
In this thesis we study the physics of quantum many-body systems confined to one-dimensional geometries. The work was motivated by the recent success of experimentalists in developing atom traps, capable of restricting the motion of the individual atoms to a single spatial dimension. Specifically, we look at aspects of the one-dimensional Bose gas including; excitation spectrum, correlation functions, and dynamical behaviour. In Chapter \ref{ch:excitation1D} we consider the Lieb-Liniger model of interacting bosons in one-dimension. We numerically solve the equations arising from the Bethe ansatz solution for the exact many-body wave function in a finite-size system of up to twenty particles for attractive interactions. We discuss novel features of the solutions, including deviations from the well-known string solutions due to finite size effects. We present excited state string solutions in the limit of strong interactions and discuss their physical interpretation, as well as the characteristics of the quantum phase transition that occurs as a function of interaction strength in the mean-field limit. Our results are compared to those obtained via exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in a truncated basis. In Chapter \ref{ch:g2} we analytically calculate the spatial nonlocal pair correlation function for an interacting uniform one dimensional Bose gas at finite temperature and propose an experimental method to measure nonlocal correlations. Our results span six different physical realms, including the weakly and strongly interacting regimes. We show explicitly that the characteristic correlation lengths are given by one of four length scales: the thermal de Broglie wavelength, the mean interparticle separation, the healing length, or the phase coherence length. In all regimes, we identify the profound role of interactions and find that under certain conditions the pair correlation may develop a global maximum at a finite interparticle separation due to the competition between repulsive interactions and thermal effects. In Chapter \ref{ch:casimirdrag} we study the drag force below the critical velocity for obstacles moving in a superfluid. The absence of drag is well established in the context of the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii theory. We calculate the next order correction due to quantum and thermal fluctuations and find a non-zero force acting on a delta-function impurity moving through a quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate at all subcritical velocities and at all temperatures. The force occurs due to an imbalance in the Doppler shifts of reflected quantum fluctuations from either side of the impurity. Our calculation is based on a consistent extension of Bogoliubov theory to second order in the interaction strength, and finds new analytic solutions to the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for a gray soliton. In Chapter \ref{ch:solitons} we study the effect of quantum noise on the stability of a soliton. We find the soliton solutions exactly define the reflectionless potentials of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. This results in complete stability of the solitons in a purely one dimensional system. We look at the modifications to the density profile of a black soliton due to quantum fluctuations.