Self-interference of a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We demonstrate the role played by a ring trap and the associated ring geometry in inducing self-interference of a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate. We start by showing how the existence of the self-interference can be inferred from the Wigner function representation of the ring. Then, using analytical expressions for the time-evolution of a freely expanding ring condensate with and without a persistent current, we show that the self-interference of the ring condensate is possible only in the absence of the persistent current. We conclude by proposing an experimental protocol for the creation of ring dark solitons using the toroidal self-interference.