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arXiv:cond-mat/0603059

Collisions between solitary waves of three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates

Nicholas G. Parker, A. Martin, Simon L. Cornish, Charles S. Adams

Published Mar 3, 2006• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study bright solitary waves of three dimensional trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and their collisions. For a single solitary wave, in addition to an upper critical number, we also find a {\em lower} cut-off, below which no stable state can be found. Collisions between solitary waves can be elastic, inelastic with either reduced or increased outgoing speed, or completely unstable due to a collapse instability. A $π$-phase difference between the waves promotes elastic collisions, and gives excellent agreement with recent experimental results over long timescales.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0603059

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We study bright solitary waves of three dimensional trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and their collisions. For a single solitary wave, in addition to an upper critical number, we also find a {\em lower} cut-off, below which no stable state can be found. Collisions between solitary waves can be elastic, inelastic with either reduced or increased outgoing speed, or completely unstable due to a collapse instability. A πππ-phase difference between the waves promotes elastic collisions, and gives excellent agreement with recent experimental results over long timescales.
The collisions of three-dimensional bright solitary matter waves formed from atomic Bose–Einstein condensates are shown to exhibit rich behaviour. Collisions range from being elastic to completely destructive due to the onset of collapse during the interaction. Through a detailed quantitative analysis we map out the role of relative phase, impact speed and interaction strength. In particular, we identify the importance of the collapse time in the onset of unstable collisions and show how the relative phase controls a population transfer between the waves. Our analysis enables us to interpret recent experimental observations of bright solitary matter waves.
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.
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.
Interactions of solitary waves in a cylindrically confined Bose-Einstein condensate are investigated by simulating their head-on collisions. Slow vortex rings and fast solitons are found to collide elastically contrary to the situation in the three-dimensional homogeneous Bose gas. Strongly inelastic collisions are absent for low density condensates but occur at higher densities for intermediate velocities. The scattering behavior is rationalized by use of dispersion diagrams. During inelastic collisions, spherical shell-like structures of low density are formed and they eventually decay into depletion droplets with solitary-wave features. The relation to similar shells observed in a recent experiment by Ginsberg et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 040403 (2005)] is discussed.
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.
We present a detailed description of the formation of bright solitary waves in optical lattices. To this end, we have considered a ring lattice geometry with large radius. In this case, the ring shape does not have a relevant effect in the local dynamics of the condensate, while offering a realistic setup to implement experiments with conditions usually not available with linear lattices (in particular, to study collisions). Our numerical results suggest that the condensate radiation is the relevant dissipative process in the relaxation towards a self-trapped solution. We show that the source of dissipation can be attributed to the presence of higher-order dispersion terms in the effective mass approach. In addition, we demonstrate that the stability of the solitary solutions is linked with particular values of the width of the wave packet in reciprocal space. Our study suggests that these critical widths for stability depend on the geometry of the energy band, but are independent of the condensate parameters (momentum, atom number, etc.). Finally, the nonsolitonic nature of the solitary waves is evidenced showing their instability under collisions.