  Matter-wave interference mechanisms in one-dimensional Bose-Einstein
condensates that allow for the controlled generation of dark soliton trains
upon choosing suitable box-type initial configurations are described. First,
the direct scattering problem for the defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger
equation with nonzero boundary conditions and general box-type initial
configurations is discussed, and expressions for the discrete spectrum
corresponding to the dark soliton excitations generated by the dynamics are
obtained. It is found that the size of the initial box directly affects the
number, size and velocity of the solitons, while the initial phase determines
the parity of the solutions. The analytical results are compared to those of
numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, both in the absence and
in the presence of a harmonic trap. The numerical results bear out the
analytical results with excellent agreement.
