Collisions of Solitons and Vortex Rings in Cylindrical Bose-Einstein Condensates

Journal Article · Fri Sep 09 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.110401· OSTI ID:20699406

Komineas, Stavros ^[1]; Brand, Joachim ^[2]

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1. TCM Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom)
2. Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden (Germany)

Interactions of solitary waves in a cylindrically confined Bose-Einstein condensate are investigated by simulating their head-on collisions. Slow vortex rings and fast solitons are found to collide elastically contrary to the situation in the three-dimensional homogeneous Bose gas. Strongly inelastic collisions are absent for low density condensates but occur at higher densities for intermediate velocities. The scattering behavior is rationalized by use of dispersion diagrams. During inelastic collisions, spherical shell-like structures of low density are formed and they eventually decay into depletion droplets with solitary-wave features. The relation to similar shells observed in a recent experiment by Ginsberg et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 040403 (2005)] is discussed.

• OSTI ID: 20699406
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 95; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
BOSE-EINSTEIN GAS
COLLISIONS
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
DENSITY
DISPERSION RELATIONS
DROPLETS
RINGS
SCATTERING
SCHROEDINGER EQUATION
SOLITONS
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VELOCITY
VORTICES