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arXiv:1102.4042

Bright and Dark Solitons and Breathers in Strongly Repulsive Bose-Einstein Condensates

William P. Reinhardt, Indubala I. Satija, Bryce Robbins, Charles W. Clark

Published Feb 20, 2011• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Collisional dynamics of solitary matter waves of superfluid hard core bosons, consisting of dark and bright non-linear waves as well as supersonic periodic trains, reveals remarkable richness and coherence, with the phase of the condensate playing a key role. Depending upon the condensate density and their relative velocity, two distinctive collisional types emerge: the intuitively expected repulsive collisions due to the hard core boson constraint; and, also collisions in which they "pass through" one another. In addition to confirming the soliton status of both bright and dark solitary waves, our studies reveal a variety of multi-solitons including multiple families of breathers, that can be produced and precisely controlled via quantum phase engineering.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1102.4042

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•Jan 1, 2008•1 citation
Collisional dynamics of solitary matter waves of superfluid hard core bosons, consisting of dark and bright non-linear waves as well as supersonic periodic trains, reveals remarkable richness and coherence, with the phase of the condensate playing a key role. Depending upon the condensate density and their relative velocity, two distinctive collisional types emerge: the intuitively expected repulsive collisions due to the hard core boson constraint; and, also collisions in which they "pass through" one another. In addition to confirming the soliton status of both bright and dark solitary waves, our studies reveal a variety of multi-solitons including multiple families of breathers, that can be produced and precisely controlled via quantum phase engineering.
We study solitary wave propagation in the condensate of a system of hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor interactions. For this strongly repulsive system, the evolution equation for the condensate order parameter of the system, obtained using spin-coherent state averages, is different from the usual Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE). The system is found to support two kinds of solitons when there is a particle-hole imbalance: a dark soliton that dies out as the velocity approaches the sound velocity and a new type of soliton which brightens and persists all the way up to the sound velocity, transforming into a periodic wave train at supersonic speed. Analogous to the GPE soliton, the energy-momentum dispersion for both solitons is characterized by Lieb II modes.
Bright solitary waves in a Bose-Einstein condensate contain thousands of identical atoms held together despite their only weakly attractive contact interactions. They nonetheless behave like a compound object, staying whole in collisions, with their collision properties strongly affected by intersoliton quantum coherence. We show that separate solitary waves decohere due to phase diffusion, dependent on their effective ambient temperature, after which their initial mean-field relative phases are no longer well defined or relevant for collisions. In this situation, collisions occur predominantly repulsively and can no longer be described within mean-field theory. When considering the timescales involved in recent solitary wave experiments where nonequilibrium phenomena play an important role, these features could explain the predominantly repulsive collision dynamics observed in most condensate soliton train experiments.
Bright solitons are non-dispersive wave solutions, arising in a diverse range of nonlinear, one-dimensional systems, including atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive interactions. In reality, cold-atom experiments can only approach the idealized one-dimensional limit necessary for the realization of true solitons. Nevertheless, it remains possible to create bright solitary waves, the three-dimensional analogue of solitons, which maintain many of the key properties of their one-dimensional counterparts. Such solitary waves offer many potential applications and provide a rich testing ground for theoretical treatments of many-body quantum systems. Here we report the controlled formation of a bright solitary matter-wave from a Bose-Einstein condensate of (85)Rb, which is observed to propagate over a distance of ∼1.1 mm in 150 ms with no observable dispersion. We demonstrate the reflection of a solitary wave from a repulsive Gaussian barrier and contrast this to the case of a repulsive condensate, in both cases finding excellent agreement with theoretical simulations using the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
Solitons are non-dispersive wave packets that balance the wave dispersion with a focusing nonlinearity. They maintain their shape and velocity after collisions with other solitons, owing to the integrability of the underlying nonlinear partial differential equations. They appear in various physical systems, such as water waves, light waves in optical fiber, and matter waves. In our laboratory, we study solitons and their interactions in a Bose-Einstein condensate with an attractive nonlinearity, trapped in a quasi-one-dimensional waveguide. We investigate the collisions of a pair of solitons and explore the relative phase implications on the boundary of integrability. We study soliton train formation with the quench of the nonlinearity strength, and interactions between neighboring solitons in the train. We form a composite soliton, known as a breather, where multiple solitons overlap and the wavefunction ``breathes'' in time. We also explore the response of an elongated condensate to an external modulation of the nonlinearity. These experiments characterize the mean-field descriptions of solitons and Bose-Einstein condensates and explore the boundaries between the mean-field theory and quantum many-body theory.
In recent years, bright soliton-like structures composed of gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates have been generated at ultracold temperature. The experimental capacity to precisely engineer the nonlinearity and potential landscape experienced by these solitary waves offers an attractive platform for fundamental study of solitonic structures. The presence of three spatial dimensions and trapping implies that these are strictly distinct objects to the true soliton solutions. Working within the zero-temperature mean-field description, we explore the solutions and stability of bright solitary waves, as well as their interactions. Emphasis is placed on elucidating their similarities and differences to the true bright soliton. The rich behaviour introduced in the bright solitary waves includes the collapse instability and symmetry-breaking collisions. We review the experimental formation and observation of bright solitary matter waves to date, and compare to theoretical predictions. Finally we discuss the current state-of-the-art of this area, including beyond-mean-field descriptions, exotic bright solitary waves, and proposals to exploit bright solitary waves in interferometry and as surface probes.
Bright solitary-waves may be created in dilute Bose-Einstein condensates of at tractively interacting atoms in one dimensional regimes. In integrable systems, such solitary waves are particle-like objects called solitons. We investigate the consequences of non-integrability on the solitary waves in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates caused by an axial harmonic trap, and non-integrability caused by three dimensional effects. To analyse the soliton-like nature of the solitary-waves in an axial harmonic trap, a particle analogy for the solitary-waves is formulated. Exact Soliton solutions exist in the absence of an external trapping potential, which behave in a particle-like manner, and we find the particle analogy we employ to be a good model also when a harmonic trapping potential is present up to a gradual shift in the trajectories when the harmonic trap period is short compared with the, collision time of the solitons. We find that the collision time of the solions is dependent on the relative phase of the solitons as they collide. In the case of two solitons, the particle model is integrable, and the dynamics are completely regular. In the case of a system of two solitary waves of equal norm, the solitons are shown to retain their phase difference for repeated collisions. The extension to three particles supports both regular and chaotic regimes. The trajectory shift observed for two solitons carrier over to the case of three solitons. This shift aside, the agreement between the particle model and the wave dynamics remains good, even in chaotic regimes. We predict that these chaotic regimes will be an indicator of rapid depletion of the condensate due to quantum transitions of the condensate particles into non-condensate modes. To analyse the residual effects of the three dimensional nature of the solitary waves, we use a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with an additional quintic term. We perform variational calculations, and confirm the collapse of a soliton when the number of particles contained therein is increased past a critical number. We investigate the effects of varying the axial trap frequency and scattering length on the critical number. We propose a method to model particle exchange between solitons by extending the variational treatment to two solitons.