Analytic results for thermal correlation enhancement after a trap quench

Abstract

We investigate the nonequilibrium evolution of density correlations in a thermal one-dimensional Bose gas following a trap quench. We focus on the Tonks--Girardeau limit and develop an analytical description based on a finite-temperature extension of Quantum Generalized Hydrodynamics. We benchmark our predictions against exact numerics for a quench from a double well to a harmonic trap and for a trap release, and assess their temperature range of validity. Our results capture the dynamical enhancement of correlations during the expansion stages, namely the crossover from thermally suppressed to power-law bulk correlations. For the trap release, the conformal distance associated with fixed bulk points decreases as $1/t$, so the correlations progressively probe a universal regime~$\sim1/x^2$ that is independent of temperature. We thus show that, in the hydrodynamic long-time regime, the bulk density correlations approach their zero-temperature equilibrium form independently of the initial temperature.