Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Magnetic solitons in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

Presenting Author: Xiao Chai, Georgia Institute of Technology
Contributing Author(s): Di Lao, Sara Sloman, Kazuya Fujimoto, Chandra Raman

Vector solitons are solitary waves occurring in multi-component nonlinear media. In spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), magnetic solitons, a novel type of vector solitons, have drawn considerable attention recently. Their existence relies crucially on the imbalance between intra- and interspecies nonlinear strengths, which stems from the spin-dependent contact interaction. Here we report on the first observation of magnetic solitons in an antiferromagnetic spin-1 BEC [1], where the solitons manifest themselves as a localized spin excitation propagating upon a balanced two-component condensate. By harnessing the underlying SO(3) symmetry of the spin-1 manifold, we derive a class of magnetic soliton solutions with three components and provide experimental evidence of them as well [2]. Moreover, we extend the study of magnetic solitons to the ferromagnetic case, where the solitons behave as a local spin-flip propagating on top of a spin-polarized background [3]. References [1] X. Chai, D. Lao, K. Fujimoto, R. Hamazaki, M. Ueda, and C. Raman, Magnetic Solitons in a Spin-1 Bose-Einstein Condensate, Phys. Rev. Lett., 125 (2020), 030402. [2] X. Chai, D. Lao, K. Fujimoto, and C. Raman, Magnetic Soliton: From Two to Three Components with SO(3) Symmetry, Phys. Rev. Res., 3 (2021), L012003. [3] X. Chai, L. You, and C. Raman, Magnetic Solitons in an Immiscible Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensate Phys. Rev. A, 105 (2022), 013313.

Read this article online: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.030402, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L012003, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.105.013313

(Session 5 : Thursday from 5:00 - 7:00 pm)