Dispersive shock waves in a one-dimensional droplet-bearing environment

We demonstrate the controllable generation of distinct types of dispersive shock waves emerging in a quantum droplet bearing environment with the aid of steplike initial conditions. Dispersive regularization of the ensuing hydrodynamic singularities occurs due to the competition between mean-field repulsion and attractive quantum fluctuations. This interplay delineates the dominance of defocusing (hyperbolic) and focusing (elliptic) hydrodynamic phenomena being designated by the real and the imaginary speed of sound, respectively. Specifically, the symmetries of the extended Gross-Pitaevskii model lead to a three-parameter family, encompassing two densities and a relative velocity, of the underlying Riemann problem utilized herein. Surprisingly, dispersive shock waves persist across the hyperbolic-to-elliptic threshold, while a plethora of additional wave patterns arise, such as rarefaction waves, traveling dispersive shock waves, (anti)kinks, and droplet wave trains. The classification and characterization of these features are achieved by deploying Whitham modulation theory. Our results pave the way for unveiling a multitude of unexplored coherently propagating waveforms in such attractively interacting mixtures and should be detectable by current experiments.