Exploring the few- to many-body crossover using cold atoms in one dimension

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent experimental and theoretical advances in one-dimensional cold atomic gases, focusing on the transition from few-body to many-body regimes and their potential for quantum simulation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in understanding one-dimensional quantum systems with controllable particle numbers, highlighting the crossover from few- to many-body physics.

Findings

Experimental control of particle numbers in 1D gases

Theoretical insights into bosonic and fermionic systems

Implications for quantum simulation and condensed matter models

Abstract

Cold atomic gases have provided us with a great number of opportunities for studying various physical systems under controlled conditions that are seldom offered in other fields. We are thus at the point where one can truly do quantum simulation of models that are relevant for instance in condensed-matter or high-energy physics, i.e. we are on the verge of a 'cool' quantum simulator as envisioned by Feynman. One of the avenues under exploration is the physics of one-dimensional systems. Until recently this was mostly in the many-body limit but now experiments can be performed with controllable particle numbers all the way down to the few-body regime. After a brief introduction to some of the relevant experiments, I will review recent theoretical work on one-dimensional quantum systems containing bosons, fermions, or mixtures of the two, with a particular emphasis on the case where the particles are held by an external trap.