Interference of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a hard-wall trap: Formation of vorticity

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how a Bose-Einstein condensate expands within a hard-wall trap, revealing complex interference patterns, vorticity formation, soliton structures, and condensate fragmentation.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical analysis of the nonlinear dynamics and interference phenomena of BECs in hard-wall traps, highlighting vorticity and soliton formation.

Findings

Observation of complex interference patterns

Formation of vorticity and soliton-like structures

Condensate fragmentation into coupled pieces

Abstract

We theoretically study the coherent expansion of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a confining impenetrable hard-wall potential. The nonlinear dynamics of the macroscopically coherent matter field results in rich and complex spatio-temporal interference patterns demonstrating the formation of vorticity and solitonlike structures, and the fragmentation of the condensate into coherently coupled pieces.