Evolution of static and dynamical density correlations in a one-dimensional soft-core gas from the Tonks-Girardeau limit to a clustering fluid

Repulsive soft-core atomic systems may undergo clustering if their density is high enough that core overlap is unavoidable. In one-dimensional quantum systems, it has been shown that this instability triggers a transition from a Luttinger liquid to various cluster Luttinger liquids. Here, we focus on the Luttinger liquid regime and theoretically study the evolution of key observables related to density fluctuations, that manifest a striking dependence on density. We tune the interaction so that the low-density regime corresponds to a Tonks-Girardeau gas, and show that as the density is increased the system departs more and more from Tonks-Girardeau behavior, displaying a much larger compressibility as well as rotonic excitations that finally drive the clustering transition. We compare various theoretical approaches, which are accurate in different regimes. Using quantum Monte Carlo methods and analytic continuation as a benchmark, we investigate the regime of validity of the mean-field Bogoliubov and the real-time multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree-Fock approaches. Part of the behavior that we describe should be observable in ultracold Rydberg-dressed gases, provided that system losses are prevented.