  Solitons are non-dispersive wave solutions that arise in a diverse range of
nonlinear systems, stablised by a focussing or defocussing nonlinearity. First
observed in shallow water, solitons have subsequently been studied in many
other fields including nonlinear optics, biophysics, astrophysics, plasma and
particle physics. They are characterised by well localised wavepackets that
maintain their initial shape and amplitude for all time, even following
collisions with other solitons. Here we report the controlled formation of
bright solitary matter-waves, the 3D analog to solitons, from Bose-Einstein
condensates of 85Rb and observe their propagation in an optical waveguide.
These results pave the way for new experimental studies of bright solitary
matterwave dynamics to elucidate the wealth of existing theoretical work and to
explore an array of potential applications including novel interferometric
devices, the study of short-range atom-surface potentials and the realisation
of Schrodingercat states.
