Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Solitons and Breathers in Bose-Einstein Condensates

Henry Luo

Published Apr 30, 2021• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

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.

Related papers

Observation of Breathers in an Attractive Bose Gas

P. J. Everitt, M. A. Sooriyabandara, Gordon McDonald +8 more

In weakly nonlinear dispersive systems, solitons are spatially localized solutions which propagate without changing shape through a delicate balance between dispersion and self-focusing nonlinear effects. These states have been extensively studied in Bose-Einstein condensates, where interatomic interactions give rise to such nonlinearities. Previous experimental work with matter wave solitons has been limited to static intensity profiles. The creation of matter wave breathers--dispersionless soliton-like states with collective oscillation frequencies driven by attractive mean-field interactions--have been of theoretical interest due to the exotic behaviour of interacting matter wave systems. Here, using an attractively interacting Bose-Einstein condensate, we present the first observation of matter wave breathers. A comparison between experimental data and a cubic-quintic Gross-Pitaevskii equation suggests that previously unobserved three-body interactions may play an important role in this system. The observation of long lived stable breathers in an attractively interacting matter wave system indicates that there is a wide range of previously unobserved, but theoretically predicted, effects that are now experimentally accessible.

arXiv:1509.06844•Sep 23, 2015•15 citations

Creation and Characterization of Matter-Wave Breathers

De Luo, Yifei Jin, Jason Nguyen +6 more

We report the creation of quasi-1D excited matter-wave solitons, "breathers," by quenching the strength of the interactions in a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive interactions. We characterize the resulting breathing dynamics and quantify the effects of the aspect ratio of the confining potential, the strength of the quench, and the proximity of the 1D-3D crossover for the two-soliton breather. Furthermore, we demonstrate the complex dynamics of a three-soliton breather created by a stronger interaction quench. Our experimental results, which compare well with numerical simulations, provide a pathway for utilizing matter-wave breathers to explore quantum effects in large many-body systems.

arXiv:2007.03766•Physical Review Letters•Oct 30, 2020•45 citations

Matter-wave interactions in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

Sheng-Chang Li, Fu-Quan Dou

We investigate two vector-soliton–like matter waves collisions in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive interactions and Gaussian barrier. We present a detailed numerical analysis of the roles of atomic interactions, barrier, relative velocity, and relative phase in collisional dynamics. We show that the interspecies interactions are crucial to make the wave packet propagate as a “breather”. We find that the collision-induced trajectory shifts of waves are mainly determined by the intraspecies interactions and proportional to them in the weak nonlinearity regime. Moreover, we explore the meeting time of colliding waves and find it depends on the competition between barrier potential and atomic interactions. Particularly, we study the collisions of two waves with a slight velocity asymmetry (or with different relative phases) and the waves merging and split are demonstrated. The underlying inelastic mechanism closely related to energy exchange is briefly discussed as well.

Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Aug 1, 2015•14 citations

Collision of discrete breathers in two-species Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices

Russell Campbell, Mateusz Borkowski, Gian‐Luca Oppo

The properties of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) can be studied and controlled effectively when trapped in optical lattices. In the limit of tight binding, BEC in optical lattices are well described by the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation (DNLSE). Spatially localised modes of excitations, known as discrete breathers or lattice solitons, can occur in the DNLSE. These have been shown to evolve from initial conditions of Gaussian wave-packets. Using this method with the addition of an initial momentum, mobile breathers that travel across the lattice with a constant velocity can also be formed.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)•May 1, 2013•0 citations

Soliton breathers in spin-1 Bose—Einstein condensates

Shen-Tong Ji, Pei-Gen Yan, Xue‐Shen Liu

We consider a spin-1 Bose—Einstein condensate trapped in a harmonic potential with different nonlinearity coefficients. We illustrate the dynamics of soliton breathers in two-component and three-component states by numerically solving the one-dimensional time-dependent coupled Gross—Pitaecskii equations (GPEs). We present that two condensates with repulsive interspecies interactions make elastic collision and novel soliton breathers are created in two-component state. We also demonstrate novel soliton breathers in three-component state with attractive coupling constants. Furthermore, possible reasons for creating soliton breathers are discussed.

Chinese Physics B•Mar 1, 2014•3 citations

Impurity driven Brownian motion of solitons in elongated Bose-Einstein Condensates

Lauren Aycock, Hilary M. Hurst, Dina Genkina +3 more

Solitons, spatially-localized, mobile excitations resulting from an interplay between nonlinearity and dispersion, are ubiquitous in physical systems from water channels and oceans to optical fibers and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). For the first time, we observed and controlled the Brownian motion of solitons. We launched long-lived dark solitons in highly elongated $^{87}\rm{Rb}$ BECs and showed that a dilute background of impurity atoms in a different internal state dramatically affects the soliton. With no impurities and in one-dimension (1-D), these solitons would have an infinite lifetime, a consequence of integrability. In our experiment, the added impurities scatter off the much larger soliton, contributing to its Brownian motion and decreasing its lifetime. We describe the soliton's diffusive behavior using a quasi-1-D scattering theory of impurity atoms interacting with a soliton, giving diffusion coefficients consistent with experiment.

•Aug 12, 2016•0 citations
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 weakly nonlinear dispersive systems, solitons are spatially localized solutions which propagate without changing shape through a delicate balance between dispersion and self-focusing nonlinear effects. These states have been extensively studied in Bose-Einstein condensates, where interatomic interactions give rise to such nonlinearities. Previous experimental work with matter wave solitons has been limited to static intensity profiles. The creation of matter wave breathers--dispersionless soliton-like states with collective oscillation frequencies driven by attractive mean-field interactions--have been of theoretical interest due to the exotic behaviour of interacting matter wave systems. Here, using an attractively interacting Bose-Einstein condensate, we present the first observation of matter wave breathers. A comparison between experimental data and a cubic-quintic Gross-Pitaevskii equation suggests that previously unobserved three-body interactions may play an important role in this system. The observation of long lived stable breathers in an attractively interacting matter wave system indicates that there is a wide range of previously unobserved, but theoretically predicted, effects that are now experimentally accessible.
We report the creation of quasi-1D excited matter-wave solitons, "breathers," by quenching the strength of the interactions in a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive interactions. We characterize the resulting breathing dynamics and quantify the effects of the aspect ratio of the confining potential, the strength of the quench, and the proximity of the 1D-3D crossover for the two-soliton breather. Furthermore, we demonstrate the complex dynamics of a three-soliton breather created by a stronger interaction quench. Our experimental results, which compare well with numerical simulations, provide a pathway for utilizing matter-wave breathers to explore quantum effects in large many-body systems.
We investigate two vector-soliton–like matter waves collisions in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive interactions and Gaussian barrier. We present a detailed numerical analysis of the roles of atomic interactions, barrier, relative velocity, and relative phase in collisional dynamics. We show that the interspecies interactions are crucial to make the wave packet propagate as a “breather”. We find that the collision-induced trajectory shifts of waves are mainly determined by the intraspecies interactions and proportional to them in the weak nonlinearity regime. Moreover, we explore the meeting time of colliding waves and find it depends on the competition between barrier potential and atomic interactions. Particularly, we study the collisions of two waves with a slight velocity asymmetry (or with different relative phases) and the waves merging and split are demonstrated. The underlying inelastic mechanism closely related to energy exchange is briefly discussed as well.
The properties of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) can be studied and controlled effectively when trapped in optical lattices. In the limit of tight binding, BEC in optical lattices are well described by the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation (DNLSE). Spatially localised modes of excitations, known as discrete breathers or lattice solitons, can occur in the DNLSE. These have been shown to evolve from initial conditions of Gaussian wave-packets. Using this method with the addition of an initial momentum, mobile breathers that travel across the lattice with a constant velocity can also be formed.
We consider a spin-1 Bose—Einstein condensate trapped in a harmonic potential with different nonlinearity coefficients. We illustrate the dynamics of soliton breathers in two-component and three-component states by numerically solving the one-dimensional time-dependent coupled Gross—Pitaecskii equations (GPEs). We present that two condensates with repulsive interspecies interactions make elastic collision and novel soliton breathers are created in two-component state. We also demonstrate novel soliton breathers in three-component state with attractive coupling constants. Furthermore, possible reasons for creating soliton breathers are discussed.
Solitons, spatially-localized, mobile excitations resulting from an interplay between nonlinearity and dispersion, are ubiquitous in physical systems from water channels and oceans to optical fibers and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). For the first time, we observed and controlled the Brownian motion of solitons. We launched long-lived dark solitons in highly elongated 87Rb^{87}\rm{Rb}87Rb BECs and showed that a dilute background of impurity atoms in a different internal state dramatically affects the soliton. With no impurities and in one-dimension (1-D), these solitons would have an infinite lifetime, a consequence of integrability. In our experiment, the added impurities scatter off the much larger soliton, contributing to its Brownian motion and decreasing its lifetime. We describe the soliton's diffusive behavior using a quasi-1-D scattering theory of impurity atoms interacting with a soliton, giving diffusion coefficients consistent with experiment.