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arXiv:1111.5134 · Physical Review A

Generation of dispersive shock waves by the flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate past a narrow obstacle

A. M. Kamchatnov, Nicolas Pavloff

Published Mar 5, 2012• 40 citations
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Abstract

We study the flow of a one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate incident onto a narrow obstacle. We consider a configuration in which a dispersive shock is formed and propagates upstream away from the obstacle while the downstream flow reaches a supersonic velocity, generating a sonic horizon. Conditions for obtaining this regime are explicitly derived and the accuracy of our analytical results is confirmed by numerical simulations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.033603

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We study the flow of a one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate incident onto a narrow obstacle. We consider a configuration in which a dispersive shock is formed and propagates upstream away from the obstacle while the downstream flow reaches a supersonic velocity, generating a sonic horizon. Conditions for obtaining this regime are explicitly derived and the accuracy of our analytical results is confirmed by numerical simulations.
The theory of stationary linear wave patterns generated in a supersonic flow of a Bose–Einstein condensate past a point-like obstacle is developed. It is shown that they are located mainly outside the Mach cone corresponding to infinitely long wavelengths. The shape of wave crests and dependence of amplitude on coordinates far enough from the obstacle are calculated. The results are in good agreement with the results of numerical simulations. The theory gives a qualitative description of experiments with Bose–Einstein condensate flow past an obstacle after the condensate's release from a trap.
The problem of the transcritical flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate through a wide repulsive penetrable barrier is studied analytically using the combination of the locally steady ``hydraulic'' solution of the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the solutions of the Whitham modulation equations describing the resolution of the upstream and downstream discontinuities through dispersive shocks. It is shown that within the physically reasonable range of parameters, the downstream dispersive shock is attached to the barrier and effectively represents the train of very slow dark solitons, which can be observed in experiments. The rate of the soliton emission, the amplitudes of the solitons in the train, and the drag force are determined in terms of the Bose-Einstein condensate oncoming flow velocity and the strength of the potential barrier. Good agreement with direct numerical solutions is demonstrated. Connection with recent experiments is discussed.
The stability of dark solitons generated by supersonic flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate past an obstacle is investigated. It is shown that in the reference frame attached to the obstacle a transition occurs at some critical value of the flow velocity from absolute instability of dark solitons to their convective instability. This leads to the decay of disturbances of solitons at a fixed distance from the obstacle and the formation of effectively stable dark solitons. This phenomenon explains the surprising stability of the flow picture that has been observed in numerical simulations.
A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a quantum fluid that gives rise to interesting shock-wave nonlinear dynamics. Experiments depict a BEC that exhibits behavior similar to that of a shock wave in a compressible gas, e.g., traveling fronts with steep gradients. However, the governing Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation that describes the mean field of a BEC admits no dissipation, hence classical dissipative shock solutions do not explain the phenomena. Instead, wave dynamics with small dispersion is considered and it is shown that this provides a mechanism for the generation of a dispersive shock wave (DSW). Computations with the GP equation are compared to experiment with excellent agreement. A comparison between a canonical one-dimensional (1D) dissipative and dispersive shock problem shows significant differences in shock structure and shock-front speed. Numerical results associated with the three-dimensional experiment show that three- and two-dimensional approximations are in excellent agreement and 1D approximations are in good qualitative agreement. Using 1D DSW theory, it is argued that the experimentally observed blast waves may be viewed as dispersive shock waves.