Gradient corrections to the local density approximation in the one-dimensional Bose gas

TL;DR

This paper develops gradient corrections to the local density approximation for the 1D Bose gas, improving density profile predictions by incorporating second-order potential derivatives, validated against numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a perturbative method to determine gradient correction coefficients in the LDA for the 1D Bose gas, enhancing its accuracy near potential extrema.

Findings

Second-order gradient corrections improve LDA accuracy.

Analytical expressions for correction coefficients in extreme interaction limits.

Comparison shows significant improvement over zeroth-order LDA.

Abstract

The local density approximation (LDA) is the central technical tool in the modeling of quantum gases in trapping potentials. It consists in treating the gas as an assembly of independent mesoscopic fluid cells at equilibrium with a local chemical potential, and it is justified when the correlation length is larger than the size of the cells. The LDA is often regarded as a crude approximation, particularly in the ground state of the one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas, { where the correlation length is "therefore said to be" infinite (in the sense that correlation functions decay as a power law).} Here we take another look at the LDA. The local density $\rho(x)$ is viewed as a functional of the trapping potential $V(x)$, to which one applies a gradient expansion. The zeroth order in that expansion is the LDA. The first-order correction in the gradient expansion vanishes due to reflection symmetry. At second order, there are two corrections proportional to $d^2V/dx^2$ and $(dV/dx)^2$, and we propose a method to determine the corresponding coefficients by a perturbative calculation in the Lieb-Liniger model. This leads to an expression for the coefficients in terms of matrix elements of the density operator, which can in principle be evaluated numerically for an arbitrary coupling constant; here we show how to efficiently evaluate the coefficient associated to the curvature of the potential $d^2V/dx^2$, which dominates the deviation to LDA near local minima or maxima of the trapping potential. Both coefficients are evaluated analytically in the limits of infinite repulsion (hard-core bosons) and small repulsion (quasi-condensate).} The corrected LDA density profiles are compared to DMRG calculations, with significant improvement compared to zeroth-order LDA.