Published August 2011 | Version v1
Journal article

Generation of matter-wave solitons of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a time-dependent complicated potential

  • 1. Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, P.O. Box 538, Strada Costiera 11, I-34014 Trieste (Italy)
  • 2. Condensed Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Douala, P.O. Box 24157, Douala (Cameroon)
  • 3. Laboratory of Mechanics, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Yaounde I, P.O. Box 812, Yaounde (Cameroon)
  • 4. Higher Teacher Training College, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 55, Maroua (Cameroon)
  • 5. Departement de Physique, Universite des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku, B.P. 943, Franceville (Gabonese Republic)

Description

We examine the generation of bright matter-wave solitons in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation describing Bose-Einstein condensates with a time-dependent complex potential, which is composed of a repulsive parabolic background potential and a gravitational field. By performing a modified lens-type transformation, an explicit expression for the growth rate of a purely growing modulational instability is presented and analyzed. We point out the effects of the gravitational field, as well as of the parameter related to the feeding or loss of atoms in the condensate, on the instability growth rate. It is evident from numerical simulations that the feeding with atoms and the magnetic trap have opposite effects on the dynamics of the system. It is shown that the feeding or loss parameter can be well used to control the instability domain. Our study shows that the gravitational field changes the condensate trail of the soliton trains during the propagation. We also perform a numerical analysis to solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a time-dependent complicated potential. The numerical results on the effect of both the gravitational field and the parameter of feeding or loss of atoms in the condensate agree well with predictions of the linear stability analysis. Another result of the present work is the modification of the background wave function in the Thomas-Fermi approximation during the numerical simulations.

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. A
Journal Volume
84
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
p. 023602-023602.12
ISSN
1050-2947
CODEN
PLRAAN

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2011 American Institute of Physics