Many-body quantum dynamics in the decay of bent dark solitons of Bose–Einstein condensates

Abstract

The beyond mean-field (MF) dynamics of a bent dark soliton (BDS) embedded in a two-dimensional repulsively interacting Bose–Einstein condensate is explored. We examine the case of a single BDS comparing the MF dynamics to a correlated approach, the multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons. Dynamical snaking of this bent structure is observed, signaling the onset of fragmentation which becomes significant during the vortex nucleation. In contrast to the MF approximation ‘filling’ of the vortex core is observed, leading in turn to the formation of filled-core vortices, instead of the MF vortex–antivortex pairs. The resulting smearing effect in the density is a rather generic feature, occurring when solitonic structures are exposed to quantum fluctuations. Here, we show that this filling owes its existence to the dynamical building of an antidark structure developed in the next-to-leading order orbital. We further demonstrate that the aforementioned beyond MF dynamics can be experimentally detected using the variance of single shot measurements. Additionally, a variety of excitations including vortices, oblique dark solitons, and open ring dark soliton-like structures building upon higher-lying orbitals is observed. We demonstrate that signatures of the higher-lying orbital excitations emerge in the total density, and can be clearly captured by inspecting the one-body coherence. In the latter context, the localization of one-body correlations exposes the existence of the multi-orbital vortex-antidark structure.