Fermionic full counting statistics with smooth boundaries: from discrete particles to bosonization

Abstract: We revisit the problem of full counting statistics of particles on a segment of a one-dimensional gas of free fermions. Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we study the crossover between the counting of discrete particles and of the continuous particle density as a function of smoothing in the counting procedure. In the discrete-particle limit, the result is given by the Fisher--Hartwig expansion for Toeplitz determinants, while in the continuous limit we recover the bosonization results. This example of full counting statistics with smoothing is also related to orthogonality catastrophe, Fermi-edge singularity and non-equilibrium bosonization.