Formation of Bright Matter-Wave Solitons during the Collapse of Attractive Bose-Einstein Condensates

Journal Article · Fri May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.170401· OSTI ID:20775223

Cornish, Simon L ^[1]; Thompson, Sarah T; Wieman, Carl E ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Durham University, Rochester Building, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)
2. JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, and the Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440 (United States)

We observe bright matter-wave solitons form during the collapse of {sup 85}Rb 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.

• OSTI ID: 20775223
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 17; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.170401; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
CONFIGURATION
INSTABILITY
MATTER
RESONANCE
RUBIDIUM 85
SOLITONS
STABILITY
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRAPS