Conformal field theory on top of a breathing one-dimensional gas of hard core bosons

Abstract

The recent results of [J. Dubail, J.-M. Stéphan, J. Viti, P. Calabrese, Scipost Phys. 2, 002 (2017)], which aim at providing access to large scale correlation functions of inhomogeneous critical one-dimensional quantum systems —e.g. a gas of hard core bosons in a trapping potential— are extended to a dynamical situation: a breathing gas in a time-dependent harmonic trap. Hard core bosons in a time-dependent harmonic potential are well known to be exactly solvable, and can thus be used as a benchmark for the approach. An extensive discussion of the approach and of its relation with classical and quantum hydrodynamics in one dimension is given, and new formulas for correlation functions, not easily obtainable by other methods, are derived. In particular, a remarkable formula for the large scale asymptotics of the bosonic \boldsymbol{n} -particle function \boldsymbol{\left< \Psi^\dagger (x_1,t_1) \dots \Psi^\dagger (x_n,t_n) \Psi(x_1',t_1') \dots \Psi(x_n',t_n') \right>} is obtained. Numerical checks of the approach are carried out for the fermionic two-point function —easier to access numerically in the microscopic model than the bosonic one— with perfect agreement.