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arXiv:1504.01787 · Physical Review A

Collision-induced frequency shifts in bright matter-wave solitons and soliton molecules

A. D. Martin

Published Feb 19, 2016• 8 citations
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Abstract

A recent experiment has detected collision-induced frequency shifts in bright matter-wave solitons [J. H. V. Nguyen et al., Nat. Phys. 10, 918 (2014)]. Using a particle model, we derive the frequency shift for two solitons in a harmonic trap, and compare it to the recent experimental results and reported theoretical approximation. We find regimes where the frequency shift is much smaller than previously predicted, and propose experiments to test these findings. We also predict that reducing the experimental trap frequency will reveal soliton molecules or soliton bound states in a cold-atom system. The bound-state dynamics are found to be both highly phase dependent and sensitive to the residual 3D nature of the experiment.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.023631

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A recent experiment has detected collision-induced frequency shifts in bright matter-wave solitons [J. H. V. Nguyen et al., Nat. Phys. 10, 918 (2014)]. Using a particle model, we derive the frequency shift for two solitons in a harmonic trap, and compare it to the recent experimental results and reported theoretical approximation. We find regimes where the frequency shift is much smaller than previously predicted, and propose experiments to test these findings. We also predict that reducing the experimental trap frequency will reveal soliton molecules or soliton bound states in a cold-atom system. The bound-state dynamics are found to be both highly phase dependent and sensitive to the residual 3D nature of the experiment.
Systems of solitary waves in the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which models a trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate, are investigated theoretically. To analyze the soliton nature of these solitary waves, 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 particlelike 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 solitons 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. This phase preservation can be used to find regimes where there is agreement between the wave and particle models. This also implies that soliton regimes may be found in three-dimensional geometries where solitary waves can be made to repeatedly collide out of phase, stabilizing the condensate against collapse. The extension to three particles supports both regular and chaotic regimes. The trajectory shift observed for two solitons carries 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 investigate the oscillation periods of bright soliton pair or vector bright soliton pair in harmonic potentials. We demonstrate that periods of low-speed solitons are greatly affected by the position shift during their collisions. The modified oscillation periods are described by defining a characterized speed, with the aid of asymptotic analysis on related exact analytic soliton solutions in integrable cases. The oscillation period can be used to distinguish the inter- and intra-species interactions between solitons. However, a bright soliton cannot oscillate in a harmonic trap, when it is coupled with a dark soliton (without any trapping potentials). Interestingly, it can oscillate in an anti-harmonic potential, and the oscillation behavior is explained by a quasi-particle theory. The modified period of two dark-bright solitons can be also described well by the characterized speed. These results address well the effects of position shift during soliton collision, which provides an important supplement for previous studies without considering phase shift effects.
Collisions between bright solitary waves in the 1D Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a harmonic potential, which models a trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate, are investigated theoretically. A particle analogy for the solitary waves is formulated and shown to be integrable for a two-particle system. The extension to three particles is shown to support chaotic regimes. Good agreement is found between the particle model and simulations of the full wave dynamics, suggesting that the dynamics can be described in terms of solitons both in regular and chaotic regimes, presenting a paradigm for chaos in wave mechanics.
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.
We model the dynamics of attractively interacting ultracold bosonic atoms in a quasi-one-dimensional wave guide with additional harmonic trapping. Initially, we prepare the system in its ground state and then shift the zero of the harmonic trap and switch on an additional narrow scattering potential near the center of the trap. After colliding with the barrier twice, we propose to measure the number of atoms opposite the initial condition. Quantum-enhanced interferometry with quantum bright solitons allows us to predict detection of an offset of the scattering potential with considerably increased precision as compared to single-particle experiments. In a future experimental realization this might lead to measurement of weak forces caused, for example, by small horizontal gradients in the gravitational potential---with a resolution of several micrometers given essentially by the size of the solitons. Our numerical simulations are based on the rigorously proved effective potential approach developed in previous papers [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 010403 (2009) and Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 210402 (2009)]. We choose our parameters such that the prerequisite of the proof (that the solitons cannot break apart, for energetic reasons) is always fulfilled, thus exploring a parameter regime inaccessible to the mean-field description via the Gross-Pitaevskii equation due to Schr\"odinger-cat states occurring in the many-particle quantum dynamics.
Motivated by recent experiments, we model the dynamics of bright solitons formed by cold gases in quasi-1D traps. A dynamical variational Ansatz captures the far-from-equilibrium excitations of these solitons. Due to a separation of scales, the radial and axial modes decouple, allowing for closed-form approximations for the dynamics. We explore how soliton dynamics influence atom loss and find that the time-averaged loss is largely insensitive to the degree of excitation. The variational approach enables us to perform high precision calculations of the critical atom number (i.e., the maximum number of atoms that can exist in a single soliton before the attractive forces overwhelm quantum pressure, leading to collapse).