Interaction quench of dipolar bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice

Abstract

A Tonks-Girardeau (TG) gas is a highly correlated quantum state of strongly interacting bosons confined to one dimension, where repulsive interactions make the particles behave like impenetrable fermions. By suddenly tuning these interactions to the attractive regime, it is possible to realize a super-Tonks-Girardeau (sTG) gas -- a highly excited, metastable state of strongly attractive bosons with unique stability properties. Inspired by the sTG quench scenario, we investigate a similar setup but with the inclusion of long-range dipolar interactions, which modify the system away from the TG Mott insulating limit. We simulate an interaction quench on dipolar bosons initially prepared in various states and fillings, using real-space densities, orbital occupations, Glauber correlation functions, and autocorrelation functions to probe post-quench stability. Our results reveal that stability is maintained only at very weak dipolar interaction strengths when starting from a unit-filled TG Mott state. In contrast, all cluster states -- whether unit-filled or doubly-filled -- eventually collapse under attractive interactions. This collapse is not always visible in the density profile but becomes apparent in the autocorrelation function, indicating complex many-body restructuring of the quantum state. Our findings underscore the potential of dipolar interactions to drive novel quantum dynamics and highlight the delicate balance required to stabilize excited states in long-range interacting systems.