Observation of dense soliton trains in a dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensate

From water waves to pulse propagation through optical fibers, the rich phenomenology of solitons is one of the prominent features of nonlinear dynamics. In dilute-gas BECs, various kinds of solitons have been demonstrated by balancing interaction and kinetic energy effects. While almost all studies so far have focused on single or just very few solitons, here we break new ground by investigating tightly packed soliton trains. We demonstrate a new method for the generation of dense dark-bright soliton trains which takes advantage of a Ramsey pulse sequence. We investigate the formation and evolution of solitons at various length scales and explore the properties of these features, such as their stability.