Eigenstates of Bose particles with repulsive contact interactions in one-dimensional space with periodic boundary conditions can be found with the help of the Bethe ansatz. The type II excitation spectrum identified by E. H. Lieb, reproduces the dispersion relation of dark solitons in the mean-field approach. The corresponding eigenstates possess translational symmetry which can be broken in measurements of positions of particles. We analyze emergence of single and double solitons in the course of the measurements and investigate dynamics of the system. In the weak interaction limit, the system follows the mean-field prediction for a short period of time. Long time evolution reveals many-body effects that are related to an increasing uncertainty of soliton positions. In the strong interaction regime particles behave like impenetrable bosons. Then, the probability densities in the configuration space become identical to the probabilities of noninteracting fermions but the wave functions themselves remember the original Bose statistics. Especially, the phase flips that are key signatures of the solitons in the weak interaction limit, can be observed in the time evolution of the strongly interacting bosons.

• Received 31 May 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023623