Bright matter wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We review recent experimental and theoretical work on the creation of bright matter wave solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates. In two recent experiments, solitons are formed from Bose–Einstein condensates of 7Li by utilizing a Feshbach resonance to switch from repulsive to attractive interactions. The solitons are made to propagate in a one-dimensional potential formed by a focused laser beam. For repulsive interactions, the wavepacket undergoes dispersivewavepacket spreading, while for attractive interactions, localized solitons are formed. In our experiment, a multi-soliton train containing up to ten solitons is observed to propagate without spreading for a duration of 2 s. Adjacent solitons are found to interact repulsively, in agreement with a calculation based on the nonlinear Schr¨odinger equation assuming that the soliton train is formed with an alternating phase structure. The origin of this phase structure is not entirely clear