Existence, stability, and dynamics of harmonically trapped one-dimensional multi-component solitary waves: The near-linear limit

Abstract

In the present work, we consider a variety of two-component, one-dimensional states in nonlinear Schrödinger equations in the presence of a parabolic trap, inspired by the atomic physics context of Bose-Einstein condensates. The use of Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction methods allows us to identify persistence criteria for the different families of solutions which we classify as (m, n), in accordance with the number of zeros in each component. Upon developing the existence theory, we turn to a stability analysis of the different configurations, using the Krein signature and the Hamiltonian-Krein index as topological tools identifying the number of potentially unstable eigendirections for each branch. A perturbation expansion for the eigenvalue problems associated with nonlinear states found near the linear limit permits us to obtain explicit asymptotic expressions for the eigenvalues. Finally, when the states are found to be unstable, typically by virtue of Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcations, their dynamics is studied in order to identify the nature of the respective instability. The dynamics is generally found to lead to a vibrational evolution over long time scales.