It is named after physicists Lewi Tonks, who developed a classical model in 1936, and Marvin D. Girardeau who generalized it to the quantum regime.
The quantum correlation functions of a Tonks–Girardeau gas can be described by means of classical, completely integrable, differential equations.
This results in an array of optical dipole traps where atoms are stored in the intensity maxima of the interference pattern.
The researchers loaded ultracold rubidium atoms into one-dimensional tubes formed by a two-dimensional lattice (the third standing wave is initially off).
This technique has been used by other researchers to obtain an array of one-dimensional Bose gases in the Tonks-Girardeau regime.
In 2011 one team created a single one-dimensional TG gas by trapping rubidium atoms magnetically in the vicinity of a microstructure.
Thibaut Jacqmin et al. measured density fluctuations in that single strongly interacting gas.