Solitons In Bose-Einstein Condensates Research Articles

Magnetic soliton: From two to three components with SO(3) symmetry

Recent theoretical and experimental research has explored magnetic solitons in binary Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Here we demonstrate that such solitons are part of an SO(3) soliton family when embedded within a full three-component spin-1 manifold with spin-rotational symmetry. To showcase this, we have experimentally created a new type of domain wall magnetic soliton (DWMS) obtained by 90 degree rotations, which consist of a boundary between easy-axis and easy-plane polar phases. Collisions between SO(3) solitons are investigated by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equations, which exhibit novel properties including rotation and dissipation of soliton spin polarization.

Observation and analysis of multiple dark-antidark solitons in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

We report on the static and dynamical properties of multiple dark-antidark solitons (DADs) in two-component, repulsively interacting Bose-Einstein condensates. Motivated by experimental observations involving multiple DADs, we present a theoretical study which showcases that bound states consisting of dark (antidark) solitons in the first (second) component of the mixture exist for different values of interspecies interactions. It is found that ensembles of few DADs may exist as stable configurations, while for larger DAD arrays, the relevant windows of stability with respect to the interspecies interaction strength become progressively narrower. Moreover, the dynamical formation of states consisting of alternating DADs in the two components of the mixture is monitored. A complex dynamical evolution of these states is observed, leading either to sorted DADs or to beating dark-dark solitons depending on the strength of the interspecies coupling. This study demonstrates clear avenues for future investigations of DAD configurations.

Bright solitons in a spin-tensor-momentum-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Synthetic spin-tensor-momentum coupling has recently been proposed to realize in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Here we study bright solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-tensor-momentum coupling and spin-orbit coupling. The properties and dynamics of spin-tensor-momentum-coupled and spin-orbit-coupled bright solitons are identified to be different. We contribute the difference to the different symmetries.

One-dimensional localized modes of spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates with spatially periodic modulated atom-atom interactions: Nonlinear lattices

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide a clear and controllable platform to study diverse intriguing emergent nonlinear effects that appear too in other physical settings, such as bright and dark solitons in mean-field theory as well as many-body physics. Various ways have been elaborated to stabilize bright solitons in BECs, three promising schemes among which are: optical lattices formed by counterpropagating laser beams, nonlinear managements mediated by Feshbach resonance, spin-orbit coupling engineered by dressing atomic spin states (hyperfine states of spinor atomic BECs) with laser beams. By combing the latter two schemes, we discover, from theory to calculations, that the two-component BECs with a spin-orbit coupling and cubic atom-atom interactions, whose nonlinear distributions exhibit a well-defined spatially periodic modulation (nonlinear lattice), can support one-dimensional localized modes of two kinds: fundamental solitons (with a single peak), and soliton pairs comprised of dipole solitons (anti-phase) or two-peak solitons (in-phase). The influence of three physical parameters: chemical potential of the system, strengths of both the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and atom-atom interactions, on the existence and stability of the localized modes is investigated based on linear-stability analysis and direct perturbed simulations. In particular, we demonstrate that the localized modes can be stable objects provided always that both the inter- and intraspecies interactions are attractive.

Splitting of coupled bright solitons in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates under parametric perturbation

We analyze the dynamics of bright-bright solitons in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) subject to parametric perturbations using the variational approach and direct numerical simulations. The system is described by a vector nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) appropriate to coupled multi-component BECs. A periodic variation of the inter-component coupling coefficient is used to explore nonlinear resonances and splitting of the coupled bright solitons. The analytical predictions are confirmed by direct numerical simulations of the vector NLSE.

Dynamics of ring dark solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates

Soliton is an exotic topological excitation, and it widely exists in various nonlinear systems, such as nonlinear optics, Bose-Einstein condensates, classical and quantum fluids, plasma, magnetic materials, etc. A stable soliton can propagate with constant amplitude and velocity, and maintain its shape. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional solitons are usually hard to stabilize, and how to realize stable two-dimensional or three-dimensional solitons has aroused the great interest of the researchers. Ring dark soliton is a kind of two-dimensional soliton, which was first theoretically predicted and experimentally realized in nonlinear optical systems. Compared with the usual two-dimensional solitons, ring dark solitons have good stability and rich dynamical behaviors. Owing to their highly controllable capability, Bose-Einstein condensates provide a new platform for studying the ring dark solitons. Based on the recent progress in Bose-Einstein condensates and solitons, this paper reviews the research on the analytic solutions, stability, as well as the decay dynamics of ring dark solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates. A transform method is introduced, which generalizes the analytic solutions of ring dark solitons from a homogeneous system with time-independent nonlinearity to a harmonically trapped inhomogeneous system with time-dependent nonlinearity. The stability phase diagram of the ring dark soliton under deformation perturbations is discussed by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equations in the mean-field theory. A method of enhancing the stability of ring dark solitons by periodically modulating the nonlinear coefficients is introduced. It is also shown that the periodically modulated nonlinear coefficient can be experimentally realized by the Feshbach resonance technology. In addition, we discuss the dynamics of the decay of ring dark solitons. It is found that the ring dark soliton can decay into various vortex clusters composed of vortices and antivortices. This opens a new avenue to the investigation of vortex dynamics and quantum turbulence. It is also found that the ring dark solitons combined with periodic modulated nonlinearity can give rise to the pattern formation, which is an interesting nonlinear phenomenon widely explored in all the fields of nature. Finally, some possible research subjects about ring dark solitons in future research are also discussed.

Dynamics and pattern formation of ring dark solitons in a two-dimensional binary Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interactions

We investigate the dynamics and pattern formation of two ring dark solitons in a two-dimensional binary Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable intercomponent interaction via numerical simulation of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Both the black and gray ring dark solitons are considered for cases where the modulation frequency of the intercomponent interaction is resonant or nonresonant with the one of the trapping potential. Our results show that in the presence of periodic modulation of the intercomponent interaction not only are the lifetimes of the ring dark solitons largely extended but also their decaying dynamics are dramatically affected. Before snaking instability sets in, new ring dark solitons are formed, and both the numbers and depths of the ring dark solitons exhibit collective oscillations. With the development of instability, the system exhibits different decaying processes, and a variety of decay profiles, such as vortex necklace, distorted octagon, vortex-antivortex ring, and cross, are formed, showing a strong dependence on the modulation frequency of the intercomponent interaction and the initial depth of the ring dark soliton.

Two-dimensional composite solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates with spatially confined spin-orbit coupling

It was recently found that the spin-orbit (SO) coupling can help to create stable matter-wave solitons in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in the two-dimensional (2D) free space. Being induced by external laser illumination, the effective SO coupling can be applied too in a spatially confined area. Using numerical methods and the variational approximation (VA), we build families of 2D solitons of the semi-vortex (SV) and mixed-mode (MM) types, and explore their stability, assuming that the SO-coupling strength is confined in the radial direction as a Gaussian. The most essential result is identification, by means of the VA and numerical methods, of the minimum size of the spatial confinement for which the 2D system maintains stable solitons of the SV and MM types.

Three-dimensional solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit coupling and Bessel optical lattices

Applying a variational approach and numerical analysis to the system of Gross-Pitaevskii equations, we find three-dimensional (3D) stable solitons in binary atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and out-of-phase linear and nonlinear Bessel optical lattices. We discuss the stability of 3D solitons by utilizing their norm and energy. The introduction of Bessel potentials makes the evolution and collisions of solitons more stable and improves their resistance to collapse. Depending on the strength of the intra- and intercomponent spatial modulation of the nonlinearity and SOC, we find stable solitons of the semivortex and mixed-mode structures. Furthermore, we show that the solitons are stable against small perturbations in propagation and collisions.

Management of matter-wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates with time-dependent atomic scattering length in a time-dependent parabolic complex potential.

In this paper, we consider a Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation with a time-dependent nonlinearity and a spatiotemporal complex linear term which describes the dynamics of matter-wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with time-dependent interatomic interactions in a parabolic potential in the presence of feeding or loss of atoms. We establish the integrability conditions under which analytical solutions describing the modulational instability and the propagation of both bright and dark solitary waves on a continuous wave background are obtained. The obtained integrability conditions also appear as the conditions under which the solitary waves of the BECs can be managed by controlling the functional gain or loss parameter. For specific BECs, the dynamics of bright and dark solitons are investigated analytically through the found exact solutions of the GP equation. Our results show that under the integrability conditions, the gain or loss parameter of the GP equation can be used to manage the motion of both bright and dark solitons. We show that for BECs with loss (gain) of atoms, the bright and dark solitons during their propagation have a compression (broadening) in their width. Furthermore, under a safe range of parameters and under the integrability conditions, it is possible to squeeze a bright soliton of BECs with loss of atoms into the assumed peak matter density, which can provide an experimental tool for investigating the range of validity of the 1D GP equation. Our results also reveal that under the conditions of the solitary wave management, neither the injection or the ejection of atoms from the condensate affects the soliton peak during its propagation.

Matter-wave solitons of Bose–Einstein condensates with time-dependent complex potentials

To analytically investigate the matter-wave solitons of Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) in time-dependent complex potential, we consider a cubic-quintic Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) equation with distributed coefficients and a dissipative term. By introducing a suitable ansatz, we establish the criterion of the modulational instability (MI) of the system and present an explicit expression for the growth rate of a purely growing MI. Effects of the parabolic background potential, as well as of the linear potential, the gain/loss parameter, and the two- and three-body interatomic interactions on the MI are investigated. We show how the feeding/loss parameter can be well used to control the instability of the system. The analytical resolution of the considered GP equation leads to exact bright, dark and kink solitary wave solutions which are used to investigate analytically the dynamics of matter-wave solitons in BECs under consideration. These analytical investigations show that the amplitude and the motion of bright, dark and kink solitary waves depend on the strengths of the two- and three-body interatomic interactions, as well as on the strengths of the external trapping potential and the parameter of the gain/loss of atoms in the condensate.

Beating effects of vector solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates.

We study the beating effects of solitons in multicomponent coupled Bose-Einstein condensate systems. Our analysis indicates that the period of beating behavior is determined by the energy eigenvalue difference in the effective quantum well induced by solitons, and the beating pattern is determined by the eigenstates of a quantum well, which are involved in the beating behavior. We show that the beating solitons correspond to linear superpositions of eigenstates in some quantum wells, and the correspondence relations are identical for solitons in both an attractive interaction and a repulsive interaction condensate. This provides a possible way to understand the beating effects of solitons for attractive and repulsive interaction cases in a unified way, based on the knowledge of quantum eigenstates. Moreover, our results demonstrate many different beating patterns for solitons in multicomponent coupled condensates, in sharp contrast to the beating dark soliton reported before. The beating behavior can be used to test the eigenvalue differences in certain quantum wells, and more abundant beating patterns are expected to exist in more component-coupled systems.

Matter-wave solitons supported by quadrupole–quadrupole interactions and anisotropic discrete lattices

We numerically and analytically investigate the formations and features of two-dimensional discrete Bose–Einstein condensate solitons, which are constructed by quadrupole–quadrupole interactional particles trapped in the tunable anisotropic discrete optical lattices. The square optical lattices in the model can be formed by two pairs of interfering plane waves with different intensities. Two hopping rates of the particles in the orthogonal directions are different, which gives rise to a linear anisotropic system. We find that if all of the pairs of dipole and anti-dipole are perpendicular to the lattice panel and the line connecting the dipole and anti-dipole which compose the quadrupole is parallel to horizontal direction, both the linear anisotropy and the nonlocal nonlinear one can strongly influence the formations of the solitons. There exist three patterns of stable solitons, namely horizontal elongation quasi-one-dimensional discrete solitons, disk-shape isotropic pattern solitons and vertical elongation quasi-continuous solitons. We systematically demonstrate the relationships of chemical potential, size and shape of the soliton with its total norm and vertical hopping rate and analytically reveal the linear dispersion relation for quasi-one-dimensional discrete solitons.

Three-dimensional vortex-bright solitons in a spin-orbit-coupled spin-1 condensate

We demonstrate stable and metastable vortex-bright solitons in a three-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled three-component hyperfine spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) using numerical solution and variational approximation of a mean-field model. The spin-orbit coupling provides attraction to form vortex-bright solitons in both attractive and repulsive spinor BECs. The ground state of these vortex-bright solitons is axially symmetric for weak polar interaction. For a sufficiently strong ferromagnetic interaction, we observe the emergence of a fully asymmetric vortex-bright soliton as the ground state. We also numerically investigate moving solitons. The present mean-field model is not Galilean invariant, and we use a Galilean-transformed mean-field model for generating the moving solitons.

Dynamics of Hysteresis for a Bose–Einstein Condensate Soliton in a Dynamic Trap

The dynamics of the fundamental soliton of Bose–Einstein atomic condensate is analytically and numerically examined and compared in two schemes: (i) a magnetic or an optical trap with oscillating walls and (ii) a single oscillating atomic mirror in a homogeneous gravitational field. It is demonstrated that the dependence of the degree of excitation of the soliton motion on the rate of scanning of the instantaneous oscillation frequency has a band structure.

Bright solitons in ultracold atoms

We review old and recent experimental and theoretical results on bright solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates made of alkali-metal atoms and under external optical confinement. First we deduce the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation (3D GPE) from the Dirac-Frenkel action of interacting identical bosons within a time-dependent Hartree approximation. Then we discuss the dimensional reduction of the GPE from 3D to 1D, deriving the 1D GPE and also the 1D nonpolynomial Schr\"odinger equation (1D NPSE). Finally, we analyze the bright solition solutions of both 1D GPE and 1D NPSE and compare these theoretical predictions with the available experimental data.

Magic tilt angle for stabilizing two-dimensional solitons by dipole-dipole interactions

In the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we study the formation and stability of effectively two-dimensional solitons in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), with dipole moments polarized at an arbitrary angle $\theta$ relative to the direction normal to the system's plane. Using numerical methods and the variational approximation, we demonstrate that unstable Townes solitons, created by the contact attractive interaction, may be completely stabilized (with an anisotropic shape) by the dipole-dipole interaction (DDI), in interval $\theta ^{\text{cr}}<\theta \leq \pi /2$. The stability boundary, $\theta ^{\text{cr}}$, weakly depends on the relative strength of DDI, remaining close to the "magic angle", $\theta_{m}=\arccos \left( 1/\sqrt{3}\right) $. The results suggest that DDIs provide a generic mechanism for the creation of stable BEC\ solitons in higher dimensions.

Observation of Two-Dimensional Localized Jones-Roberts Solitons in Bose-Einstein Condensates

Jones-Roberts solitons are the only known class of stable dark solitonic solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation in two and three dimensions. They feature a distinctive elongated elliptical shape that allows them to travel without change of form. By imprinting a triangular phase pattern, we experimentally generate two-dimensional Jones-Roberts solitons in a three-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We monitor their dynamics, observing that this kind of soliton is indeed not affected by dynamic (snaking) or thermodynamic instabilities, that instead make other classes of dark solitons unstable in dimensions higher than one. Our results confirm the prediction that Jones-Roberts solitons are stable solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation and promote them for applications beyond matter wave physics, like energy and information transport in noisy and inhomogeneous environments.

Dynamics of dark-bright vector solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates

We analyze the dynamics of two-component vector solitons, namely bright-in-dark solitons, via the variational approximation in Bose-Einstein condensates. The system is described by a vector nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation appropriate to multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The variational approximation is based on hyperbolic secant (hyperbolic tangent) for the bright (dark) component, which leads to a system of coupled ordinary differential equations for the evolution of the ansatz parameters. We obtain the oscillation dynamics of two-component dark-bright vector solitons. Analytical calculations are performed for same-width components in the vector soliton and numerical calculations extend the results to arbitrary widths. We calculate the binding energy of the system and find it proportional to the intercomponent coupling interaction, and numerically demonstrate the break up or unbinding of a dark-bright soliton. Our calculations explore observable eigenmodes, namely the internal oscillation eigenmode and the Goldstone eigenmode. We find analytically that the density of the bright component is required to be less than the density of the dark component in order to find the internal oscillation eigenmode of the vector soliton and support the existence of the dark-bright soliton. This outcome is confirmed by numerical results. Numerically, we find that the oscillation frequency is amplitude independent. For dark-bright vector solitons in $^{87}$Rb we find that the oscillation frequency range is 90 to 405 Hz, and therefore observable in multi-component BEC experiments.

Tunable ground-state solitons in spin–orbit coupling Bose–Einstein condensates in the presence of optical lattices**Properties of the ground-state solitons, which exist in the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) in the presence of optical lattices, are presented. Results show that several system parameters, such as SOC strength, lattice depth, and lattice frequency, have important influences on properties of ground state solitons

Properties of the ground-state solitons, which exist in the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) in the presence of optical lattices, are presented. Results show that several system parameters, such as SOC strength, lattice depth, and lattice frequency, have important influences on properties of ground state solitons in SOC BEC. By controlling these parameters, structure and spin polarization of the ground-state solitons can be effectively tuned, so manipulation of atoms may be realized.