Interferometry with correlated matter-waves

Abstract

Matter-wave interferometry of ultra-cold atoms with attractive interactions is studied at the full many-body level. First, we study how a coherent light-pulse applied to an initially-condensed solitonic system splits it into two matter-waves. The split system looses its coherence and develops correlations with time, and inevitably becomes fragmented due to inter-particle attractions. Next, we show that by re-colliding the sub-clouds constituting the split density together, along with a simultaneous application of the same laser-pulse, one creates three matter-waves propagating with different momenta. We demonstrate that the number of atoms in the sub-cloud with zero-momentum is directly proportional to the degree of fragmentation in the system. This interferometric-based protocol to discriminate, probe, and measure the fragmentation is general and can be applied to ultra-cold systems with attractive, repulsive, short- and long-range interactions.