No Arabic abstract
We consider the ground state of an attractively-interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a prolate, cylindrically symmetric harmonic trap. If a true quasi-one-dimensional limit is realized, then for sufficiently weak axial trapping this ground state takes the form of a bright soliton solution of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation. Using analytic variational and highly accurate numerical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation we systematically and quantitatively assess how soliton-like this ground state is, over a wide range of trap and interaction strengths. Our analysis reveals that the regime in which the ground state is highly soliton-like is significantly restricted, and occurs only for experimentally challenging trap anisotropies. This result, and our broader identification of regimes in which the ground state is well-approximated by our simple analytic variational solution, are relevant to a range of potential experiments involving attractively-interacting Bose-Einstein condensates.
A study of bright matter-wave solitons of a cesium Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is presented. Production of a single soliton is demonstrated and dependence of soliton atom number on the interatomic interaction is investigated. Formation of soliton trains in the quasi one-dimensional confinement is shown. Additionally, fragmentation of a BEC has been observed outside confinement, in free space. In the end a double BEC production setup for studying soliton collisions is described.
We propose a method to split the ground state of an attractively interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensate into two bright solitary waves with controlled relative phase and velocity. We analyze the stability of these waves against their subsequent re-collisions at the center of a cylindrically symmetric, prolate harmonic trap as a function of relative phase, velocity, and trap anisotropy. We show that the collisional stability is strongly dependent on relative phase at low velocity, and we identify previously unobserved oscillations in the collisional stability as a function of the trap anisotropy. An experimental implementation of our method would determine the validity of the mean field description of bright solitary waves, and could prove an important step towards atom interferometry experiments involving bright solitary waves.
Motivated by the experimental development of quasi-homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates confined in box-like traps, we study numerically the dynamics of dark solitons in such traps at zero temperature. We consider the cases where the side walls of the box potential rise either as a power-law or a Gaussian. While the soliton propagates through the homogeneous interior of the box without dissipation, it typically dissipates energy during a reflection from a wall through the emission of sound waves, causing a slight increase in the solitons speed. We characterise this energy loss as a function of the wall parameters. Moreover, over multiple oscillations and reflections in the box-like trap, the energy loss and speed increase of the soliton can be significant, although the decay eventually becomes stabilized when the soliton equilibrates with the ambient sound field.
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 (ie. the maximum number of atoms that can exist in a single soliton before the attractive forces overwhelm quantum pressure, leading to collapse).
We present a comprehensive analysis of the form and interaction of dipolar bright solitons across the full parameter space afforded by dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing the rich behaviour introduced by the non-local nonlinearity. Working within an effective one-dimensional description, we map out the existence of the soliton solutions and show three collisional regimes: free collisions, bound state formation and soliton fusion. Finally, we examine the solitons in their full three-dimensional form through a variational approach; along with regimes of instability to collapse and runaway expansion, we identify regimes of stability which are accessible to current experiments.