Solitons as the early stage of quasicondensate formation during evaporative cooling

We calculate the evaporative cooling dynamics of trapped one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates for parameters leading to a range of condensates and quasicondensates in the final equilibrium state. We confirm that solitons are created during the evaporation process, but always eventually dissipate during thermalisation. The distance between solitons at the end of the evaporation ramp matches the coherence length in the final thermal state. Calculations were made using the classical fields method. They bridge the gap between the phase defect picture of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism and the long-wavelength phase fluctuations in the thermal state.