Interference of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a hard-wall trap: from nonlinear Talbot effect to formation of vorticity

We theoretically study the coherent expansion of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a confining impenetrable hard-wall potential. The nonlinear dynamics of the macroscopically coherent matter field results in rich and complex spatio-temporal self-interference patterns demonstrating a nonlinear Talbot effect, and the formation of vorticity and solitonlike structures.