Watching Dark Solitons Decay into Vortex Rings in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

B. P. Anderson; P. C. Haljan; C. A. Regal; D. L. Feder; L. A. Collins; C. W. Clark; E. A. Cornell

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2926

Watching Dark Solitons Decay into Vortex Rings in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

B. P. Anderson, P. C. Haljan, C. A. Regal, D. L. Feder, L. A. Collins, C. W. Clark, and E. A. Cornell

Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2926 – Published 2 April 2001

Abstract

We have created spatial dark solitons in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in which the soliton exists in one of the condensate components and the soliton nodal plane is filled with the second component. The filled solitons are stable for hundreds of milliseconds. The filling can be selectively removed, making the soliton more susceptible to dynamical instabilities. For a condensate in a spherically symmetric potential, these instabilities cause the dark soliton to decay into stable vortex rings. We have imaged the resulting vortex rings.

Received 11 December 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2926

Authors & Affiliations

B. P. Anderson^1,2, P. C. Haljan¹, C. A. Regal³, D. L. Feder⁴, L. A. Collins⁵, C. W. Clark⁴, and E. A. Cornell^1,2

¹JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440
²Quantum Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305
³Physics Department, Lawrence University, P.O. Box 599, Appleton, Wisconsin 54912
⁴Electron and Optical Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8410
⁵Theoretical Division, Mail Stop B212, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545