Formation of soliton trains in Bose-Einstein condensates by temporal Talbot effect

K. Gawryluk, M. Brewczyk, M. Gajda and J, Mostowski

We study the formation of matter-wave soliton trains in Bose–Einstein condensates confined in a box-like potential. We find that the generation of 'real' solitons understood as multipeak structures undergoing elastic collisions is possible if the condensate is released from the box into the harmonic trap only within well-defined time intervals. When the box-like potential is switched off outside the existing time windows, the number of peaks in a train changes resembling missing solitons observed in recent experiment (Strecker et al 2002 Nature 417 150). Our findings indicate that a new way of generating soliton trains in condensates through the temporal, matter-wave Talbot effect is possible.

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 39 No 1