Observation of Jones-Roberts solitons in a paraxial quantum fluid of light

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Main Authors: Baker-Rasooli, Myrann, Aladjidi, Tangui, Krause, Nils A., Bradley, Ashton S., Glorieux, Quentin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Baker-Rasooli, Myrann
Aladjidi, Tangui
Krause, Nils A.
Bradley, Ashton S.
Glorieux, Quentin
author_facet Baker-Rasooli, Myrann
Aladjidi, Tangui
Krause, Nils A.
Bradley, Ashton S.
Glorieux, Quentin
contents We investigate the formation and dynamics of Jones-Roberts solitons in a smoothly inhomogeneous quantum fluid. To do so, we create a superfluid of light using paraxial, near-resonant laser beam propagating through a hot rubidium vapor. We excite a bounded vortex-antivortex dipole in the superfluid and observe its transition to a rarefaction pulse and back, in agreement with the seminal predictions of Jones and Roberts. Employing an analogy with ray optics, we calculate the trajectory of the interacting vortices, deriving an effective refractive index from the inhomogeneous fluid density. Finally, we examine analytically and experimentally the superfluid velocity correlations, observing a transfer of coherence from incompressible to compressible velocity of the quantum fluid, a direct signature of the dynamical conversion between vortices and rarefaction pulse.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_08383
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Observation of Jones-Roberts solitons in a paraxial quantum fluid of light
Baker-Rasooli, Myrann
Aladjidi, Tangui
Krause, Nils A.
Bradley, Ashton S.
Glorieux, Quentin
Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
We investigate the formation and dynamics of Jones-Roberts solitons in a smoothly inhomogeneous quantum fluid. To do so, we create a superfluid of light using paraxial, near-resonant laser beam propagating through a hot rubidium vapor. We excite a bounded vortex-antivortex dipole in the superfluid and observe its transition to a rarefaction pulse and back, in agreement with the seminal predictions of Jones and Roberts. Employing an analogy with ray optics, we calculate the trajectory of the interacting vortices, deriving an effective refractive index from the inhomogeneous fluid density. Finally, we examine analytically and experimentally the superfluid velocity correlations, observing a transfer of coherence from incompressible to compressible velocity of the quantum fluid, a direct signature of the dynamical conversion between vortices and rarefaction pulse.
title Observation of Jones-Roberts solitons in a paraxial quantum fluid of light
topic Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.08383