title: Cascade of Solitonic Excitations in a Superfluid Fermi gas: From Planar Solitons to Vortex Rings and Lines.
abstract: We follow the time evolution of a superfluid Fermi gas of resonantly interacting ^{6}Li atoms after a phase imprint. Via tomographic imaging, we observe the formation of a planar dark soliton, its subsequent snaking, and its decay into a vortex ring, which, in turn, breaks to finally leave behind a single solitonic vortex. In intermediate stages, we find evidence for an exotic structure resembling the Φ soliton, a combination of a vortex ring and a vortex line. Direct imaging of the nodal surface reveals its undulation dynamics and its decay via the puncture of the initial soliton plane. The observed evolution of the nodal surface represents dynamics beyond superfluid hydrodynamics, calling for a microscopic description of unitary fermionic superfluids out of equilibrium.
authors.affiliation: MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics, and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Mark J H
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.affiliation: MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics, and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Biswaroop
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics, and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Tarik
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yefsah
authors.affiliation: MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics, and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Martin W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Zwierlein