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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Formation of dispersive shock waves by merging and splitting Bose-Einstein condensates
J J Chang1, P Engels, M A Hoefer
1Washington State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pullman, Washington, D.C. 99164, USA.
Abstract:
The processes of merging and splitting dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates are studied in the nonadiabatic, high-density regime. Rich dynamics are found. Depending on the experimental parameters, uniform soliton trains containing more than ten solitons or the formation of a high-density bulge as well as dispersive shock waves are observed experimentally within merged BECs. Our numerical simulations indicate the formation of many vortex rings. In the case of splitting a BEC, the transition from sound-wave formation to dispersive shock-wave formation is studied by use of increasingly stronger splitting barriers. These experiments realize prototypical dispersive shock situations.
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