Anomalous oscillations of dark solitons in trapped dipolar condensates

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that dark solitons in trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates exhibit anomalous oscillations highly sensitive to atomic interactions, revealing their extended, non-particle-like nature and potential as probes of quantum matter.

Contribution

It shows that dark solitons in dipolar condensates have interaction-dependent oscillation frequencies, challenging the particle analogy and highlighting their extended, non-particle-like behavior.

Findings

Oscillation frequency depends strongly on atomic interactions.

Dark solitons are supported in trapped quasi-1D dipolar condensates.

These solitons can serve as probes of quantum matter fields.

Abstract

Thanks to their immense purity and controllability, dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates are an exemplar for studying fundamental non-local nonlinear physics. Here we show that a family of fundamental nonlinear waves - the dark solitons - are supported in trapped quasi-one-dimensional dipolar condensates and within reach of current experiments. Remarkably, the oscillation frequency of the soliton is strongly dependent on the atomic interactions, in stark contrast to the non-dipolar case. The failure of a particle analogy, so successful for dark solitons in general, to account for this behaviour implies that these structures are inherently extended and non-particle-like. These highly-sensitive waves may act as mesoscopic probes of the underlying quantum matter field.