Separation of spin and charge in cold Fermi gases

Abstract

One of the key features of one-dimensional systems is the phenomenon of spin–charge separation. We show this separation of spin and charge in real time in the 1D Hubbard model by the application of the adaptive time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group method. It is found for single particle excitations and density wave packets far beyond the low-energy Luttinger liquid theory. An experimental set-up is proposed on how to observe the spin–charge separation with ultracold Fermi gases in a harmonic trap using the presence of the Mott-insulator region. Quantitative estimates for experimental parameters are given.