Diffraction catastrophes threaded by quantized vortex skeletons caused by atom-optical aberrations induced in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

We propose a nonlinear atom-optics experiment to create diffraction catastrophes threaded by quantized vortex skeletons in Bose-Einstein-condensed matter waves. We show how atom-optical aberrations induced in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates evolve into specific caustic structures due to imperfect focusing. Vortex skeletons, whose cross sections are staggered vortex lattices, are observed to nucleate inside the universal diffraction catastrophes. Our observations shed further light on the structure and dynamics of Bose novae and suggest applications of matter wave diffraction catastrophes, including the detection of the order parameter pairing symmetry in cold gas experiments.