Correlations in low-dimensional quantum gases

Abstract

Ultracold gases are a versatile platform to simulate condensed matter physics, as virtually any parameter is experimentally tunable. In particular, highly anisotropic traps allow the realization of low-dimensional systems, where the role of quantum fluctuations is enhanced. I investigate the paradigmatic model of a one-dimensional Bose gas with contact interactions, a.k.a the Lieb-Liniger model, using powerful analytical tools such as Bethe Ansatz, Conformal Field Theory and the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid formalism, as well as the Bose-Fermi mapping. The effect of an additional harmonic trap in the longitudinal direction is studied within the Local Density Approximation. These methods allow to investigate with high accuracy its ground-state thermodynamics of the gas, its excitation spectra and correlation functions, from the k-body local correlations to the momentum distribution and the dynamical structure factor. These quantities characterize the coherence and superfluidity of the gas. In particular, I study the drag force exerted by a weak gaussian barrier stirred into the gas within linear response theory. Then, I investigate the appearance of a multimode structure obtained by releasing a transverse trapping, and the dimensional crossover in the limit of an infinite number of transverse modes.