Spatial dispersive shock waves generated in supersonic flow of Bose–Einstein condensate past slender body

Abstract

Supersonic flow of Bose–Einstein condensate past macroscopic obstacles is studied theoretically. It is shown that in the case of large obstacles the Cherenkov cone transforms into a stationary spatial shock wave which consists of a number of spatial dark solitons. Analytical theory is developed for the case of obstacles having a form of a slender body. This theory explains qualitatively the properties of such shocks observed in recent experiments on nonlinear dynamics of condensates of dilute alkali gases