Solitons in the discrete nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation

Abstract

We introduce a species of the discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger (DNLS) equation, which is a model for a self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a combination of a cigar-shaped trap and deep optical lattice acting in the axial direction. The equation is derived as a discretization of the respective nonlinear nonpolynomial Schr\"odinger equation. Unlike previously considered varieties of one-dimensional DNLS equations, the present discrete model admits on-site collapse. We find two families of unstaggered on-site-centered discrete solitons, stable and unstable ones, which include, respectively, broad and narrow solitons, their stability exactly complying with the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion. Unstable on-site solitons either decay or transform themselves into robust breathers. Intersite-centered unstaggered solitons are unstable to collapse; however, they may be stabilized by the application of a sufficiently strong kick, which turns them into moving localized modes. Persistently moving solitons can be readily created too by the application of the kick to stable on-site unstaggered solitons. In the same model, staggered solitons, which are counterparts of gap solitons in the continuum medium, are possible if the intrinsic nonlinearity is self-repulsive. All on-site staggered solitons are stable, while intersite ones have a small instability region. The staggered solitons are immobile.