Ultracold bosons in one-dimensional harmonic and multi-well traps: a quantum Monte Carlo versus a correlated-pair approach

We study the crossover of a finite one-dimensional bosonic ensemble from weak to strong interactions in harmonic traps and multi-well potentials. We perform diffusion quantum Monte Carlo calculations which we show to be in good agreement with results from analytical functions that we construct to describe these systems. For the harmonic trap, we use the correlated-pair wavefunction which we introduced in Brouzos and Schmelcher (2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 045301) considering here much larger atom numbers, going beyond the few body ensembles studied in our previous work. We also investigate double and triple wells, changing correspondingly the uncorrelated part of the ansatz to describe efficiently the single-particle behaviour. On-site effects beyond mean-field and standard Bose-Hubbard calculations that appear in densities being captured by our analytical functions are explored.