Spectral function of spinless fermions on a one-dimensional lattice

Abstract

We study the spectral function of interacting one-dimensional fermions for an integrable lattice model away from half-filling. The divergent power-law singularity of the spectral function near the single-particle or single-hole energy is described by an effective x-ray edge type model. At low densities and for momentum near the zone boundary, we find a second divergent singularity at higher energies which is associated with a two-particle bound state. We use the Bethe ansatz solution of the model to calculate the exact singularity exponents for any momentum and for arbitrary values of chemical potential and interaction strength in the critical regime. We relate the singularities of the spectral function to the long-time decay of the fermion Green's function and compare our predictions with numerical results from the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group (tDMRG). Our results show that the tDMRG method is able to provide accurate time decay exponents in the cases of power-law decay of the Green's function. Some implications for the line shape of the dynamical structure factor away from half-filling are also discussed. In addition, we show that 85% of the total spectral weight in the zero field Heisenberg model near wave-vector $q=\ensuremath{\pi}$ is given by the two-spinon contribution.