Formation of matter-wave soliton trains by modulational instability

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 356; no. 6336; pp. 422 - 426
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Jason H. V., Luo, De, Hulet, Randall G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 28-04-2017; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Bose-Einstein condensates; Dynamical systems; Formations; Imaging; Imaging techniques; Initial conditions; Instability; Nearest-neighbor; Nondestructive testing; Nonlinear dynamics; Nonlinear systems; Oscillations; Resonance; Respiration; Scaling; Scaling laws; Solitary waves; Solitons; Stability; Travel; Waveforms
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aal3220

Nonlinear systems can exhibit a rich set of dynamics that are inherently sensitive to their initial conditions. One such example ismodulational instability, which is believed to be one of the most prevalent instabilities in nature. By exploiting a shallow zero-crossing of a Feshbach resonance, we characterize modulational instability and its role in the formation of matter-wave soliton trains from a Bose-Einstein condensate. We examine the universal scaling laws exhibited by the system and, through real-time imaging, address a long-standing question of whether the solitons in trains are created with effectively repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions or rather evolve into such a structure.