Formation of dispersive shock waves by merging and splitting Bose-Einstein condensates

The processes of merging and splitting dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates are studied in the nonadiabatic, high-density regime. Rich dynamics are found. Depending on the experimental parameters, uniform soliton trains containing more than ten solitons or the formation of a high-density bulge as we...

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Veröffentlicht in:Physical review letters 2008-10, Vol.101 (17), p.170404-170404, Article 170404
Hauptverfasser: Chang, J J, Engels, P, Hoefer, M A
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The processes of merging and splitting dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates are studied in the nonadiabatic, high-density regime. Rich dynamics are found. Depending on the experimental parameters, uniform soliton trains containing more than ten solitons or the formation of a high-density bulge as well as dispersive shock waves are observed experimentally within merged BECs. Our numerical simulations indicate the formation of many vortex rings. In the case of splitting a BEC, the transition from sound-wave formation to dispersive shock-wave formation is studied by use of increasingly stronger splitting barriers. These experiments realize prototypical dispersive shock situations.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.101.170404