where is the Dirac delta function. The constant denotes the strength of the interaction, represents a repulsive interaction and an attractive interaction. The hard core limit is known as the Tonks–Girardeau gas.
For a collection of bosons, the wave function is unchanged under permutation of any two particles (permutation symmetry), i.e., for all and satisfies for all .
The delta function in the Hamiltonian gives rise to a boundary condition when two coordinates, say and are equal. The condition is that as approaches from above (), the derivative satisfies
.
Solution
Fig. 1: The ground state energy (per particle) as a function of the interaction strength per density , from.
The time-independent Schrödinger equation, is solved by explicit construction of . Since is symmetric it is completely determined by its values in the simplex , defined by the condition that .
The solution can be written in the form of a Bethe ansatz as
,
with wave vectors , where the sum is over all permutations, , of the integers , and maps to . The coefficients , as well as the 's are determined by the condition , and this leads to a total energy
,
with the amplitudes given by
These equations determine in terms of the 's. These lead to equations:
where are integers when is odd and, when is even, they take values . For the ground state the 's satisfy
12Elliott H. Lieb and Werner Liniger, Exact Analysis of an Interacting Bose Gas. I. The General Solution and the Ground State, Physical Review 130: 1605–1616, 1963