Cascade of Solitonic Excitations in a Superfluid Fermi gas: From Planar Solitons to Vortex Rings and Lines
Name
PhysRevLett.116.045304.pdf
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1.77 MB
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Author(s)
Ku, Mark J. H.
Mukherjee, Biswaroop
Yefsah, Tarik
Zwierlein, Martin Wolfram
Ku, Mark J. H.
Date Issued
January 2016
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Ku, Mark J. H., Biswaroop Mukherjee, Tarik Yefsah, and Martin W. Zwierlein. "Cascade of Solitonic Excitations in a Superfluid Fermi gas: From Planar Solitons to Vortex Rings and Lines." Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 045304 (January 2016). © 2016 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We follow the time evolution of a superfluid Fermi gas of resonantly interacting [superscript 6]Li atoms after a phase imprint. Via tomographic imaging, we observe the formation of a planar dark soliton, its subsequent snaking, and its decay into a vortex ring, which, in turn, breaks to finally leave behind a single solitonic vortex. In intermediate stages, we find evidence for an exotic structure resembling the Φ soliton, a combination of a vortex ring and a vortex line. Direct imaging of the nodal surface reveals its undulation dynamics and its decay via the puncture of the initial soliton plane. The observed evolution of the nodal surface represents dynamics beyond superfluid hydrodynamics, calling for a microscopic description of unitary fermionic superfluids out of equilibrium.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.045304
