Bright Soliton to Quantum Droplet Transition in a Mixture of Bose-Einstein Condensates

Phys Rev Lett. 2018 Mar 30;120(13):135301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.135301.

Abstract

Attractive Bose-Einstein condensates can host two types of macroscopic self-bound states: bright solitons and quantum droplets. Here, we investigate the connection between them with a Bose-Bose mixture confined in an optical waveguide. We show theoretically that, depending on atom number and interaction strength, solitons and droplets can be smoothly connected or remain distinct states coexisting only in a bistable region. We measure their spin composition, extract their density for a broad range of parameters, and map out the boundary of the region separating solitons from droplets.