Experimental observation of oscillating and interacting matter wave dark solitons.
We report on the generation, subsequent oscillation and interaction of a pair of matter-wave dark solitons. These are created by releasing a Bose-Einstein condensate from a double well potential into a harmonic trap in the crossover regime between one dimension and three dimensions. Multiple oscillations and collisions of the solitons are observed, in quantitative agreement with simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. An effective particle picture is developed and confirms that the deviation of the observed oscillation frequencies from the asymptotic prediction nu(z)/sqrt 2, where nu(z) is the longitudinal trapping frequency, results from the dimensionality of the system and the soliton interactions.
Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, University of Heidelberg, INF 227, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
A
A
Weller
J P
JP
Ronzheimer
C
C
Gross
J
J
Esteve
M K
MK
Oberthaler
D J
DJ
Frantzeskakis
G
G
Theocharis
P G
PG
Kevrekidis