Quantum Entangled Dark Solitons Formed by Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum effects influence dark solitons in optical lattices, revealing that quantum phenomena cause soliton filling and inelastic collisions, contrasting with mean-field predictions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantum analysis of dark solitons in optical lattices using the Bose-Hubbard model, highlighting effects not captured by mean-field theory.

Findings

Quantum effects cause soliton filling in optical lattices.

Soliton-soliton collisions become inelastic due to quantum effects.

Quantum measures reveal clear signals of quantum phenomena in soliton dynamics.

Abstract

Inspired by experiments on Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices, we study the quantum evolution of dark soliton initial conditions in the context of the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. An extensive set of quantum measures is utilized in our analysis, including von Neumann and generalized quantum entropies, quantum depletion, and the pair correlation function. We find that quantum effects cause the soliton to fill in. Moreover, soliton-soliton collisions become inelastic, in strong contrast to the predictions of mean-field theory. These features show that the lifetime and collision properties of dark solitons in optical lattices provide clear signals of quantum effects.