Quench induced vortex-bright-soliton formation in binary Bose–Einstein condensates

Abstract

We unravel the spontaneous generation of vortex-bright-soliton structures in binary Bose–Einstein condensates with a small mass imbalance between the species confined in a two-dimensional harmonic trap where one of the two species has been segmented into two parts by a potential barrier. To trigger the dynamics the potential barrier is suddenly removed and subsequently the segments perform a counterflow dynamics. We consider a relative phase difference of π between the segments, while a singly quantized vortex may be imprinted at the center of the other species. The number of vortex structures developed within the segmented species following the merging of its segments is found to depend on the presence of an initial vortex on the other species. In particular, a π phase difference in the segmented species and a vortex in the other species result in a single vortex-bright-soliton structure. However, when the non-segmented species does not contain a vortex the counterflow dynamics of the segmented species gives rise to a vortex dipole in it accompanied by two bright solitary waves arising in the non-segmented species. Turning to strongly mass imbalanced mixtures, with a heavier segmented species, we find that the same overall dynamics takes place, while the quench-induced nonlinear excitations become more robust. Inspecting the dynamics of the angular momentum we show that it can be transferred from one species to the other, and its transfer rate can be tuned by the strength of the interspecies interactions and the mass of the atomic species.