A highly accurate symplectic-preserving scheme for Gross-Pitaevskii equation

We investigate propagating dark soliton solutions of the two-dimensional defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger or Gross-Pitaevskii (NLS-GP) equation that are transversely confined to propagate in an infinitely long channel. Families of single, vortex, and multilobed solitons are computed using a spectrally accurate numerical scheme. The multilobed solitons are unstable to small transverse perturbations. However, the single-lobed solitons are stable if they are sufficiently confined along the transverse direction, which explains their effective one-dimensional dynamics. The emergence of a transverse modulational instability is characterized in terms of a spectral bifurcation. The critical confinement width for this bifurcation is found to coincide with the existence of a propagating vortex solution and the onset of a ``snaking'' instability in the dark soliton dynamics that, in turn, give rise to vortex or multivortex excitations. These results shed light on the superfluidic hydrodynamics of dispersive shock waves in Bose-Einstein condensates and nonlinear optics.

We extend the Projected Gross Pitaevskii equation formalism of Davis et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. \bf{87}, 160402 (2001)] to the experimentally relevant case of harmonic potentials. We outline a robust and accurate numerical scheme that can efficiently simulate this system. We apply this method to investigate the equilibrium properties of a harmonically trapped three-dimensional Bose gas at finite temperature, and consider the dependence of condensate fraction, position and momentum distributions, and density fluctuations on temperature. We apply the scheme to simulate an evaporative cooling process in which the preferential removal of high energy particles leads to the growth of a Bose-Einstein condensate. We show that a condensate fraction can be inferred during the dynamics even in this non-equilibrium situation.