An eccentrically perturbed Tonks–Girardeau gas

We investigate the static and dynamic properties of a Tonks–Girardeau gas in a harmonic trap with an eccentric δ-perturbation of variable strength. For this, we first find the analytic eigensolution of the single particle problem and then use this solution to calculate the spatial density and energy profiles of the many-particle gas as a function of the strength and position of the perturbation. We find that the crystal nature of the Tonks state is reflected in both the lowest occupation number and the momentum distribution of the gas. As a novel application of our model, we study the time evolution of the spatial density after the sudden removal of the perturbation. The dynamics exhibits collapses and revivals of the original density distribution, which occur in units of the trap frequency. This is reminiscent of the Talbot effect from classical optics. 4 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed. New Journal of Physics 12 (2010) 093041 1367-2630/10/093041+14$30.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft