arXiv:1809.07303 · Physical Review A
Collision of rarefaction waves in Bose-Einstein condensates
Sergey K. Ivanov, A. M. Kamchatnov
Abstract
We consider the problem of expansion of a Bose-Einstein condensate released from a box. Contrary to the standard situation of its release from a harmonic trap, in this case the dynamics is complicated by a process of collision of two rarefaction waves propagating to the center of an initially uniform distribution. A complete analytical solution of this problem is obtained by the Riemann method in the hydrodynamic dispersionless approximation, and the results are compared with the exact numerical solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.