Chladni Solitons and the Onset of the Snaking Instability for Dark Solitons in Confined Superfluids

Complex solitary waves composed of intersecting vortex lines are predicted in a channeled superfluid. Their shapes in a cylindrical trap include a cross, spoke wheels, and Greek Phi, and trace the nodal lines of unstable vibration modes of a planar dark soliton in analogy to Chladni's figures of membrane vibrations. The stationary solitary waves extend a family of solutions that include the previously known solitonic vortex and vortex rings. Their bifurcation points from the dark soliton indicating the onset of new unstable modes of the snaking instability are predicted from scale separation for Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and superfluid Fermi gases across the BEC-BCS crossover, and confirmed by full numerical calculations. Chladni solitons could be observed in ultracold gas experiments by seeded decay of dark solitons.