Dissipation-induced hard-core boson gas in an optical lattice

We present a theoretical investigation of a lattice Tonks-Girardeau gas that is created by inelastic, instead of elastic interactions. An analytical calculation shows that in the limit of strong two-body losses, the dynamics of the system is effectively that of a hard-core boson gas. We also derive an analytic expression for the effective loss rate. We find good agreement between these analytical results and results from a rigorous numerical calculation. The hard-core character of the particles is visible both in a reduced effective loss rate and in the momentum distribution of the gas.