Incoherent matter-wave solitons: Mutual self-trapping of a Bose-Einstein condensate and its surrounding thermal cloud

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a Bose-Einstein condensate and its surrounding thermal cloud can mutually self-trap due to attractive interactions, forming a novel type of composite soliton without external confinement.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of mutual self-trapping between a BEC and thermal cloud driven by interactions, expanding the understanding of matter-wave solitons.

Findings

Mutual self-trapping occurs without external confinement.

The phenomenon is supported by attractive particle interactions.

It represents a new class of composite random-phase solitons.

Abstract

We show that a Bose-Einstein condensate and a portion of its surrounding thermal cloud can exhibit mutual self-trapping, supported by the attractive particle interactions, and not by the external confinement. This type of dynamics is characteristic of composite random-phase solitons.