Scattering of a matter-wave single soliton and a two-soliton molecule by an attractive potential

Abstract

Scattering of a matter-wave single soliton and two-soliton molecule incident on the modified Pöschl-Teller potential well has been studied by means of a collective coordinate approach and numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Despite the attractive nature of the potential we observe total reflection of solitons in particular ranges of parameters, which is the signature of quantum behavior displayed by the matter-wave soliton. For other particular sets of parameters unscathed transmission of solitons and molecules through the potential well has been identified. A specific feature of this process is that the soliton passing through the potential well overtakes the freely propagating counterpart; i.e., its mean position appears to have been advanced in time. An array of such potentials makes the "time advance" effect even more pronounced, so that scattered solitons move well ahead of nonscattered ones, fully preserving their initial shape and velocity. A possible application of the obtained results is pointed out.