title: Formation of dispersive shock waves by merging and splitting Bose-Einstein condensates.
abstract: The processes of merging and splitting dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates are studied in the nonadiabatic, high-density regime. Rich dynamics are found. Depending on the experimental parameters, uniform soliton trains containing more than ten solitons or the formation of a high-density bulge as well as dispersive shock waves are observed experimentally within merged BECs. Our numerical simulations indicate the formation of many vortex rings. In the case of splitting a BEC, the transition from sound-wave formation to dispersive shock-wave formation is studied by use of increasingly stronger splitting barriers. These experiments realize prototypical dispersive shock situations.
authors.affiliation: Washington State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pullman, Washington, D.C. 99164, USA.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Engels
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hoefer