Momentum distribution dynamics of a Tonks-Girardeau gas: Bragg reflections of a quantum many-body wavepacket

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the momentum distribution of a Tonks-Girardeau gas evolves during Bragg reflections, revealing interaction-dependent suppression effects and employing a fast computational method.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fast algorithm to compute the momentum distribution of a TG gas during Bragg reflections, highlighting the influence of interactions on wavepacket dynamics.

Findings

Strong suppression of Bragg-reflection peaks in dense TG gases

Momentum distribution depends on interactions and wavefunction symmetry

Development of a fast computational algorithm for RSPDM

Abstract

The dynamics of the momentum distribution and the reduced single-particle density matrix (RSPDM) of a Tonks-Girardeau (TG) gas is studied in the context of Bragg-reflections of a many-body wavepacket. We find strong suppression of a Bragg-reflection peak for a dense TG wavepacket; our observation illustrates dependence of the momentum distribution on the interactions/wavefunction symmetry. The momentum distribution is calculated with a fast algorithm based on a formula expressing the RSPDM via a dynamically evolving single-particle basis.