Formation of bright matter-wave solitons during the collapse of attractive Bose-Einstein condensates

Cornish, S.L.; Thompson, S.T.; Wieman, C.E.

Abstract

We observe bright matter-wave solitons form during the collapse of 85Rb condensates in a three-dimensional (3D) magnetic trap. The collapse is induced by using a Feshbach resonance to suddenly switch the atomic interactions from repulsive to attractive. Remnant condensates containing several times the critical number of atoms for the onset of instability are observed to survive the collapse. Under these conditions a highly robust configuration of 3D solitons forms such that each soliton satisfies the condition for stability and neighboring solitons exhibit repulsive interactions.

Citation

Cornish, S., Thompson, S., & Wieman, C. (2006). Formation of bright matter-wave solitons during the collapse of attractive Bose-Einstein condensates. Physical Review Letters, 96(17), Article 170401. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.96.170401

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2006-05
• Deposit Date: Jan 4, 2007
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2010
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 96
• Issue: 17
• Article Number: 170401
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.96.170401
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1549189