Search

The combination of linear and nonlinear potentials, both shaped as a single well, enables competition between the confinement and expulsion induced by the former and latter potentials, respectively. We demonstrate that this setting leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) of the ground state in the respective generalized nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger (Gross-Pitaevskii) equation, through a spontaneous off-center shift of the trapped mode. Two different SSB bifurcation scenarios are possible, depending on the shape of the nonlinearity-modulation profile, which determines the nonlinear potential. If the profile is bounded (remaining finite at $|x|\rightarrow \infty $), at a critical value of the integral norm the spatially symmetric state loses its stability, giving rise to a pair of mutually symmetric stable asymmetric ones via a direct pitchfork bifurcation. On the other hand, if the nonlinear potential is unbounded, two unstable asymmetric modes merge into the symmetric metastable one and destabilize it, via an inverted pitchfork bifurcation. Parallel to a systematic numerical investigation, basic results are obtained in an analytical form. The settings can be realized in Bose-Einstein condensates and nonlinear optical waveguides., Comment: Phys. Rev. E, to be published

We study localized modes (LMs) of the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii/nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation with a harmonic-oscillator (parabolic) confining potential, and a periodically modulated coefficient in front of the cubic term (nonlinear lattice pseudopotential). The equation applies to a cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate loaded in the combination of a magnetic trap and an optical lattice which induces the periodic pseudopotential via the Feshbach resonance. Families of stable LMs in the model feature specific properties which result from the interplay between spatial scales introduced by the parabolic trap and the period of the nonlinear pseudopotential. Asymptotic results on the shapes and stability of LMs are obtained for small-amplitude solutions and in the limit of a rapidly oscillating nonlinear pseudopotential. We show that the presence of the lattice pseudopotential may result in: (i) creation of new LM families which have no counterparts in the case of the uniform nonlinearity; (ii) stabilization of some previously unstable LM species; (iii) evolution of unstable LMs into a pulsating mode trapped in one well of the lattice pseudopotential., Comment: to be published in Commun. Nonlin. Sci. Numer. Simul

We develop a general classification of the infinite number of families of solitons and soliton complexes in the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii/nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a nonlinear lattice pseudopotential, i.e., periodically modulated coefficient in front of the cubic term, which takes both positive and negative local values. This model finds direct implementations in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates and nonlinear optics. The most essential finding is the existence of two branches of dipole solitons (DSs), which feature an antisymmetric shape, essentially squeezed into a single cell of the nonlinear lattice. This soliton species was not previously considered in nonlinear lattices. We demonstrate that one branch of the DS family (namely, the one which obeys the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion) is stable, while unstable DSs spontaneously transform into stable fundamental solitons (FSs). The results are obtained in numerical and approximate analytical forms, the latter based on the variational approximation. Some stable bound states of FSs are found too., Comment: 12 pages, Chaos, in press