Reduced density matrix approach to one-dimensional ultracold bosonic systems

Abstract

The variational determination of the two-boson reduced density matrix is described for a one-dimensional system of $N$ (where $N$ ranges from $2$ to $10^4$) harmonically trapped bosons interacting via contact interaction. The ground-state energies are calculated, and compared to existing methods in the field, including the analytic case (for $N=2)$ and mean-field approaches such as the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation and its variations. Structural properties including the density and correlation functions are also derived, including the behaviour of the correlation function when boson coordinates coincide, collectively demonstrating the capacity of the reduced density matrix method to accurately calculate ground-state properties of bosonic systems comprising few to many bosons, including the cross-over region between these extremes, across a large range of interaction strengths.