Oscillation properties of matter-wave bright solitons in harmonic potentials

Abstract

We investigate the oscillation periods of bright soliton pair or vector bright soliton pair in harmonic potentials. We demonstrate that periods of low-speed solitons are greatly affected by the position shift during their collisions. The modified oscillation periods are described by defining a characterized speed, with the aid of asymptotic analysis on related exact analytic soliton solutions in integrable cases. The oscillation period can be used to distinguish the inter- and intra-species interactions between solitons. However, a bright soliton cannot oscillate in a harmonic trap, when it is coupled with a dark soliton (without any trapping potentials). Interestingly, it can oscillate in an anti-harmonic potential, and the oscillation behavior is explained by a quasi-particle theory. The modified period of two dark-bright solitons can be also described well by the characterized speed. These results address well the effects of position shift during soliton collision, which provides an important supplement for previous studies without considering phase shift effects.