Universal shock-wave propagation in one-dimensional Bose fluids

TL;DR

This paper introduces a universal method to generate and study dispersive shock waves in one-dimensional Bose fluids, demonstrating their robustness and universality across interaction strengths, with potential experimental realizations.

Contribution

It presents a protocol for creating and analyzing dispersive shock waves in interacting Bose fluids, extending the shock wave paradigm to many-body quantum systems.

Findings

Shock waves oscillate for multiple periods and are robust against thermal fluctuations.

The dynamics are universal across all interaction strengths, governed by sound velocity.

The proposed shock waves are experimentally feasible with ultracold atoms.

Abstract

We propose a protocol for creating moving, robust dispersive shock waves in interacting one-dimensional Bose fluids. The fluid is prepared in a moving state by phase imprinting and sent against the walls of a box trap. We demonstrate that the thus formed shock wave oscillates for several periods and is robust against thermal fluctuations. We show that this large amplitude dynamics is universal across the whole spectrum of the interatomic interaction strength, from weak to strong interactions, and it is fully controlled by the sound velocity inside the fluid. Our work provides a generalization of the dispersive-shock-wave paradigm to the many-body regime. The shock waves we propose are within reach for ultracold atom experiments.