Self-interfering matter-wave patterns generated by a moving laser obstacle in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate inside a power trap cut off by box potential boundaries

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation of self-interfering matter-wave patterns in a 2D Bose-Einstein condensate caused by a moving obstacle within a box-trapped environment, revealing novel standing wave phenomena.

Contribution

It presents the first observation and simulation of self-interfering matter-wave patterns in a 2D BEC with a moving obstacle and box potential boundaries.

Findings

Observation of highly energetic SIMW patterns

Reflection-induced standing wave formations

Simulation of Gross-Pitaevskii dynamics with a moving obstacle

Abstract

We report the observation of highly energetic self-interfering matter-wave (SIMW) patterns generated by a moving obstacle in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) inside a power trap cut off by hard-wall box potential boundaries. The obstacle initially excites circular dispersive waves radiating away from the center of the trap which are reflected from hard-wall box boundaries at the edges of the trap. The resulting interference between outgoing waves from the center of the trap and reflected waves from the box boundaries institutes, to the best of our knowledge, unprecedented standing wave patterns. For this purpose we simulated the time dependent Gross- Pitaevskii equation using the split-step Crank-Nicolson method. The obstacle is modelled by a moving impenetrable Gaussian potential barrier. Various trapping geometries are considered.