Statistics and Dynamics of the Center-of-Mass Coordinate in a Quantum Liquid

Motivated by recent experiments in ultracold gases, we focus on the properties of the center-of-mass coordinate of an interacting one-dimensional Fermi gas, displaying several distinct phases. While the variance of the center of mass vanishes in insulating phases such as phase-separated and charge density wave phases, it remains finite in the metallic phase, which realizes a Luttinger liquid. By combining numerics with bosonization, we demonstrate that the autocorrelation function of the center-of-mass coordinate is universal throughout the metallic phase. It exhibits persistent oscillations, and its short time dynamics reveal important features of the quantum liquid, such as the Luttinger liquid parameter and the renormalized velocity. The full counting statistics of the center of mass follows a normal distribution already for small systems. Our results apply to nonintegrable systems as well and are within experimental reach for, e.g., carbon nanotubes and cold atomic gases.