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We present families of beating dark-dark soiitons in spin-orbit (SO) -coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. These families consist of soiitons residing simultaneously in the two bands of the energy spectrum. The soliton components are characterized by two different spatial and temporal scales, which are identified by a multiscale expansion method. The soiitons are "beating" ones, as they perform density oscillations. The characteristic frequency of the latter is relevant to Zitterbewegung (ZB) oscillations, which were recently observed in experiments with SO-coupled condensates [C. Qu et al., Phys. Rev. A 88, 021604(R) (2013); L. J. LeBlanc etal.,New J. Phys. 15, 073011 (2013)]. We find that spin oscillations may occur, depending on the parity of each soliton branch, which consequently lead to ZB oscillations of the beating dark soiitons. Analytical results are corroborated by numerical simulations, illustrating the robustness of the soiitons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the dynamical properties of vortices in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of phenomenological dissipation, used as a basic model for the effect of finite temperatures. In the context of this so-called dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii model, we derive analytical results for the motion of single vortices and, importantly, for vortex dipoles, which have become very relevant experimentally. Our analytical results are shown to compare favorably to the full numerical solution of the dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation where appropriate. We also present results on the stability of vortices and vortex dipoles, revealing good agreement between numerical and analytical results for the internal excitation eigenfrequencies, which extends even beyond the regime of validity of this equation for cold atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider nonlinear analogs of parity-time- (PT-) symmetric linear systems exhibiting defocusing nonlinearities. We study the ground state and odd excited states (dark solitons and vortices) of the system and report the following remarkable features. For relatively weak values of the parameter ϵ controlling the strength of the PT-symmetric potential, excited states undergo (analytically tractable) spontaneous symmetry breaking; as ϵ is further increased, the ground state and first excited state, as well as branches of higher multisoliton (multivortex) states, collide in pairs and disappear in blue-sky bifurcations, in a way which is strongly reminiscent of the linear PT phase transition-thus termed the nonlinear PT phase transition. Past this critical point, initialization of, e.g., the former ground state, leads to spontaneously emerging solitons and vortices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performing a systematic Bogoliubov-de Gennes spectral analysis, we illustrate that stationary vortex lines, vortex rings, and more exotic states, such as hopfions, are robust in three-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, for large parameter intervals. Importantly, we find that the hopfion can be stabilized in a simple parabolic trap, without the need for trap rotation or inhomogeneous interactions. We supplement our spectral analysis by studying the dynamics of such stationary states; we find them to be robust against significant perturbations of the initial state. In the unstable regimes, we not only identify the unstable mode, such as a quadrupolar or hexapolar mode, but we also observe the corresponding instability dynamics. Furthermore, deep in the Thomas-Fermi regime, we investigate the particlelike behavior of vortex rings and hopfions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, we investigate how single- and multi-vortex-ring states can emerge from a planar dark soliton in three-dimensional (3D) Bose-Einstein condensates (confined in isotropic or anisotropic traps) through bifurcations. We characterize such bifurcations quantitatively using a Galerkin-type approach and find good qualitative and quantitative agreement with our Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) analysis. We also systematically characterize the BdG spectrum of the dark solitons, using perturbation theory, and obtain a quantitative match with our 3D BdG numerical calculations. We then turn our attention to the emergence of single- and multi-vortexring states. We systematically capture these as stationary states of the system and quantify their BdG spectra numerically. We find that although the vortex ring may be unstable when bifurcating, its instabilities weaken and may even eventually disappear for sufficiently large chemical potentials and suitable trap settings. For instance, we demonstrate the stability of the vortex ring for an isotropic trap in the large-chemical-potential regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier work has shown that ring dark solitons in two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates are generically unstable. In this work, we propose a way of stabilizing the ring dark soliton via a radial Gaussian external potential. We investigate the existence and stability of the ring dark soliton upon variations of the chemical potential and also of the strength of the radial potential. Numerical results show that the ring dark soliton can be stabilized in a suitable interval of external potential strengths and chemical potentials. We also explore different proposed particle pictures considering the ring as a moving particle and find, where appropriate, results in very good qualitative and also reasonable quantitative agreement with the numerical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study scattering of quasi-one-dimensional matter waves at an interface of two spatial domains, one with repulsive and one with attractive interatomic interactions. It is shown that the incidence of a Gaussian wave packet from the repulsive to the attractive region gives rise to generation of a soliton train. More specifically, the number of emergent solitons can be controlled, e.g., by the variation of the amplitude or the width of the incoming wave packet. Furthermore, we study the reflectivity of a soliton incident from the attractive region to the repulsive one. We find the reflection coefficient numerically and employ analytical methods, which treat the soliton as a particle (for moderate and large amplitudes) or a quasilinear wave packet (for small amplitudes), to determine the critical soliton momentum (as a function of the soliton amplitude) for which total reflection is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present contribution, we explore a host of different stationary states, namely dark-bright solitons and their lattices, that arise in the context of multicomponent atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The latter are modeled by systems of coupled Gross-Pilaevskii equations with general interaction (nonlinearity) coefficients g¡j. It is found that in some particular parameter ranges such solutions can be obtained in analytical form, however, numerically they are computed as existing in a far wider parametric range. Many features of the solutions under study, such as their analytical form without the trap or the stability and dynamical properties of one dark-bright soliton even in the presence of the trap are obtained analytically and corroborated numerically. Additional features, such as the stability of soliton lattice homogeneous states or their existence and stability in the presence of the trap, are examined numerically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study formation of solitons induced by counterflows of immiscible superfluids. Our setting is based on a quasi-one-dimensional binary Bose-Einstein condensate, composed of two immiscible components with large and small numbers of atoms in them. Assuming that the "small" component moves with constant velocity, either by itself, or being dragged by a moving trap, and intrudes into the "large" counterpart, the following results are obtained. Depending on the velocity, and on whether the small component moves in the absence or in the presence of the trap, two-component dark-bright solitons, scalar dark solitons, or multiple dark solitons may emerge, the last outcome taking place due to breakdown of the superfluidity. We present two sets of analytical results to describe this phenomenology. In an intermediate velocity regime, where dark-bright solitons form, a reduction of the two-component Gross-Pitaevskii system to an integrable Mel'nikov system is developed, demonstrating that solitary waves of the former are very accurately described by analytically available solitons of the latter. In the high-velocity regime, where the breakdown of the superfluidity induces the formation of dark solitons and multisoliton trains, an effective single-component description, in which a strongly localized wave packet of the "small" component acts as an effective potential for the "large" one, allows us to estimate the critical velocity beyond which the coherent structures emerge in good agreement with the numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study matter-wave dark solitons in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) at finite temperatures, under the effect of linear and periodic potentials. Our model, namely, a dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation, is treated analytically by means of dark-soliton perturbation theory and the Landau dynamics approach, which result in a Newtonian equation of motion for the dark-soliton center. This reduced model, which incorporates an effective washboard potential and an antidamping term accounting for finite-temperature effects, constitutes an example of an antidamped Josephson junction. We perform a qualitative (local and global) analysis of the equation of motion. We present results of systematic numerical simulations for both zero- and finite-temperature BECs to highlight the differences between the Hamiltonian and dissipative settings. For sufficiently small wave numbers of the periodic potential and weak linear potentials, the analytical results are found to be in good agreement with pertinent ones obtained via a Bogoliubov-de Gennes analysis and direct numerical simulations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive and study two versions of the short pulse equation (SPE) in (2 + 1) dimensions. Using Maxwell's equations as a starting point, and suitable Kramers-Kronig formulas for the permittivity and permeability of the medium, which are relevant, e.g., to left-handed metamaterials and dielectric slab wave guides, we employ a multiple scales technique to obtain the relevant models. General properties of the resulting (2+1l)-dimensional SPEs, including fundamental conservation laws, as well as the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian structure and numerical simulations for one- and two-dimensional initial data, are presented. Ultrashort one-dimensional breathers appear to be fairly robust, while rather general two-dimensional localized initial conditions are transformed into quasi-one-dimensional dispersing wave forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by recent experimental results, we present a systematic theoretical analysis of dark-bright-soliton interactions and multiple-dark-bright-soliton complexes in atomic two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. We study analytically the interactions between two dark-bright solitons in a homogeneous condensate and then extend our considerations to the presence of the trap. We illustrate the existence of robust stationary dark-bright-soliton "molecules," composed of two or more solitons, which are formed due to the competition of the interaction forces between the dark- and bright-soliton components and the trap force. Our analysis is based on an effective equation of motion, derived for the distance between two dark-bright solitons. This equation provides equilibrium positions and characteristic oscillation frequencies of the solitons, which are found to be in good agreement with the eigenfrequencies of the anomalous modes of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting a mean-field description for a two-component atomic Bose-Einstein condensate, we study the statics and dynamics of dark-bright solitons in the presence of localized impurities. We use adiabatic perturbation theory to derive an equation of motion for the dark-bright soliton center. We show that, counterintuitively, an attractive (repulsive) delta-like impurity, acting solely on the bright-soliton component, induces an effective localized barrier (well) in the effective potential felt by the soliton; this way, dark-bright solitons are reflected from (transmitted through) attractive (repulsive) impurities. Our analytical results for the small-amplitude oscillations of solitons are found to be in good agreement with results obtained via a Bogoliubov-de Gennes analysis and direct numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fluctuating and dissipative dynamics of matter-wave dark solitons within harmonically trapped, partially condensed Bose gases is studied both numerically and analytically. A study of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which correctly accounts for density and phase fluctuations at finite temperatures, reveals dark-soliton decay times to be lognormally distributed at each temperature, thereby characterizing the previously predicted long-lived soliton trajectories within each ensemble of numerical realizations [S. P. Cockburn et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 174101 (2010)]. Expectation values for the average soliton lifetimes extracted from these distributions are found to agree well with both numerical and analytic predictions based upon the dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii model (with the same ab initio damping). Probing the regime for which 0.8 kB T < μ < 1.6 kB T, we find average soliton lifetimes to scale with temperature as τ ~ T-4, in agreement with predictions previously made for the low-temperature regime kB T ≪ μ. The model is also shown to capture the experimentally relevant decrease in the visibility of an oscillating soliton due to the presence of background fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, we explore the existence, stability, and dynamics of single- and multiple-vortex-ring states that can arise in Bose-Einstein condensates. Earlier works have illustrated the bifurcation of such states in the vicinity of the linear limit for isotropic or anisotropic three-dimensional harmonic traps. Here, we extend these states to the regime of large chemical potentials, the so-called Thomas-Fermi limit, and explore their properties such as equilibrium radii and inter-ring distance for multi-ring states, as well as their vibrational spectra and possible instabilities. In this limit, both the existence and stability characteristics can be partially traced to a particle picture that considers the rings as individual particles oscillating within the trap and interacting pairwise with one another. Finally, we examine some representative instability scenarios of the multi-ring dynamics, including breakup and reconnections, as well as the transient formation of vortex lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study dark solitons near potential and nonlinearity steps and combinations thereof, forming rectangular barriers. This setting is relevant to the contexts of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (where such steps can be realized by using proper external fields) and nonlinear optics (for beam propagation near interfaces separating optical media of different refractive indices). We use perturbation theory to develop an equivalent particle theory, describing the matter-wave or optical soliton dynamics as the motion of a particle in an effective potential. This Newtonian dynamical problem provides information for the soliton statics and dynamics, including scenarios of reflection, transmission, or quasitrapping at such steps. The case of multiple such steps and its connection to barrier potentials is additionally touched upon. The range of validity of the analytical approximation and radiation effects are also investigated. Our analytical predictions are found to be in very good agreement with the corresponding numerical results, where appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we employ the SO(2) rotations of a two-component, one-, two-, and three-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger system at and near the Manakov limit to construct vector solitons and vortex structures. In this way, stable stationary dark-bright solitons and their higher-dimensional siblings are transformed into robust oscillatory dark-dark solitons (and generalizations thereof) with and without a harmonic confinement. By analogy to the one-dimensional case, vector higher-dimensional structures take the form of vortex-vortex states in two dimensions and, e.g., vortex-ring-vortex-ring ones in three dimensions. We consider the effects of unequal (self- and cross-) interaction strengths, where the SO(2) symmetry is only approximately satisfied, showing the dark-dark soliton oscillation is generally robust. Similar features are found in higher dimensions too, although our examples suggest that phenomena such as phase separation may contribute to the associated dynamics. These results, in connection with the experimental realization of one-dimensional variants of such states in optics and Bose-Einstein condensates, suggest the potential observability of the higher-dimensional bound states proposed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we study spherical shell dark soliton states in three-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Their symmetry is exploited in order to analyze their existence, as well as that of topologically charged variants of the structures, and, importantly, to identify their linear stability Bogoliubov-de Gennes spectrum. We compare our effective one-dimensional spherical and two-dimensional cylindrical computations with the full three-dimensional numerics. An important conclusion is that such spherical shell solitons can be stable sufficiently close to the linear limit of the isotropic condensates considered herein. We have also identified their instabilities leading to the emergence of vortex line and vortex ring cages. In addition, we generalize effective particle pictures of lower-dimensional dark solitons and ring dark solitons to the spherical shell solitons concerning their equilibrium radius and effective dynamics around it. In this case too, we favorably compare, qualitatively and quantitatively, the resulting predictions such as the shell equilibrium radius with full numerical solutions in three dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]