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Controlled formation and reflection of a bright solitary matter-wave

Marchant, A.L.; Billam, T.P.; Wiles, T.P.; Yu, M.M.H.; Gardiner, S.A.; Cornish, S.L.

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Authors

A.L. Marchant

T.P. Billam

T.P. Wiles

M.M.H. Yu



Abstract

Bright solitons are non-dispersive wave solutions, arising in a diverse range of nonlinear, one-dimensional systems, including atomic Bose–Einstein condensates with attractive interactions. In reality, cold-atom experiments can only approach the idealized one-dimensional limit necessary for the realization of true solitons. Nevertheless, it remains possible to create bright solitary waves, the three-dimensional analogue of solitons, which maintain many of the key properties of their one-dimensional counterparts. Such solitary waves offer many potential applications and provide a rich testing ground for theoretical treatments of many-body quantum systems. Here we report the controlled formation of a bright solitary matter-wave from a Bose–Einstein condensate of 85Rb, which is observed to propagate over a distance of ~1.1 mm in 150 ms with no observable dispersion. We demonstrate the reflection of a solitary wave from a repulsive Gaussian barrier and contrast this to the case of a repulsive condensate, in both cases finding excellent agreement with theoretical simulations using the three-dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equation.

Citation

Marchant, A., Billam, T., Wiles, T., Yu, M., Gardiner, S., & Cornish, S. (2013). Controlled formation and reflection of a bright solitary matter-wave. Nature Communications, 4, Article 1865. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2893

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date May 1, 2013
Deposit Date Apr 9, 2013
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Nature Communications
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 4
Article Number 1865
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2893
Keywords Physical sciences, Atomic and molecular physics.

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