Samira Shamailov

Citation

Thesis Title
Quantum description of dark solitons in one-dimensional quantum gases

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Ultra-cold atomic physics has been one of the fastest growing fields over the past 20 years. One-dimensional systems are particularly interesting because they are the simplest to describe mathematically. Dark solitons (nonlinear wave excitations with particle-like properties) are predicted from the approximate theory, but not well-understood from the full quantum-mechanical model, despite it being exactly solvable. Ms Shamailov clarified the quantum nature of dark solitons by developing new methods and ideas to extract physical information from the so-called Bethe ansatz solutions. She discovered that dark soliton-like objects can be made by superpositions of the lowest energy excitations in the system. Furthermore, using a particular mathematical model, she was able to extract the properties of a fundamental object, independent of the chosen superposition and constant in time that can be identified as the quantum dark soliton. Ms Shamailov's research conclusively answers a long-standing open question.

Supervisors
Professor Joachim Brand
Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger