We report results of a systematic analysis of matter-wave gap solitons (GSs) in three-dimensional self-repulsive Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) loaded into a combination of a cigar-shaped trap and axial optical-lattice (OL) potential. Basic cases of the strong, intermediate, and weak radial (transverse) confinement are considered, as well as settings with shallow and deep OL potentials. Only in the case of the shallow lattice combined with tight radial confinement, which actually has little relevance to realistic experimental conditions, does the usual one-dimensional (1D) cubic Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) furnish a sufficiently accurate description of GSs. However, the effective 1D equation with the nonpolynomial nonlinearity, derived in Ref. [Phys. Rev. A 77, 013617 (2008)], provides for quite an accurate approximation for the GSs in all cases, including the situation with weak transverse confinement, when the soliton's shape includes a considerable contribution from higher-order transverse modes, in addition to the usual ground-state wave function of the respective harmonic oscillator. Both fundamental GSs and their multipeak bound states are considered. The stability is analyzed by means of systematic simulations. It is concluded that almost all the fundamental GSs are stable, while their bound states may be stable if the underlying OL potential is deep enough.
We propose an experimentally relevant scheme to create stable solitons in a three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate confined by a one-dimensional optical lattice (OL), using spatially uniform temporal modulation of the scattering length (through ac magnetic field tuned close to the Feshbach resonance). Another physical implication of the model is a possibility to create stable 3D “light bullets” in an optical medium with a longitudinal alternating self-focusing/defocusing structure, and periodic modulation of the refractive index in a transverse direction. We develop a variational approximation to identify a stability region in the parametric space, and verify the existence of stable breathing solitons in direct simulations. Both methods reveal that stable solitons may be supported if the average value of the nonlinear coefficient (whose sign corresponds to attraction between atoms) and the OLs strength exceed well-defined minimum values. A moderately strong OL supports multi-peaked solitons, with essential interaction between the peaks.
Abstract We study the statics and dynamics of anisotropic, stable, bright and dark-in-bright dipolar quasi-two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) solitons on a one-dimensional (1D) optical-lattice (OL) potential. These solitons mobile in a plane perpendicular to a 1D OL trap can have both repulsive and attractive contact interactions. Dark-in-bright solitons are the excited states of bright solitons. The solitons, when subjected to a small perturbation, exhibit sustained breathing oscillation. Dark-in-bright solitons can be created by phase imprinting a bright soliton. At medium velocities the collision between two solitons is found to be quasi-elastic. Results are demonstrated by a numerical simulation of the three-dimensional mean-field Gross–Pitaevskii equation in three spatial dimensions employing realistic interaction parameters for a dipolar 164 Dy BEC.
By numerical simulation and variational analysis of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation we study the localization, with an exponential tail, of a dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate (DBEC) of 52 Cr atoms in a three-dimensional bichromatic optical lattice (OL) generated by two monochromatic OLs of incommensurate wavelengths along three orthogonal directions. For a fixed dipole–dipole interaction, a localized state of a small number of atoms (∼1000) could be obtained when the short-range interaction is not too attractive or not too repulsive. A phase diagram showing the region of stability of a DBEC with a short-range interaction and dipole–dipole interaction is given.
We study fundamental and compound gap solitons (GSs) of matter waves in one-dimensional (1D) optical lattices (OLs) in a three-dimensional (3D) weak-radial-confinement regime, which corresponds to realistic experimental conditions in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). In this regime GSs exhibit nontrivial radial structures. Associated with each 3D linear spectral band exists a family of fundamental gap solitons that share a similar transverse structure with the Bloch waves of the corresponding linear band. GSs with embedded vorticity
m may exist inside bands corresponding to other values of
m. Stable GSs, both fundamental and compound ones (including vortex solitons), are those which originate from the bands with lowest axial and radial quantum numbers. These findings suggest a scenario for the experimental generation of robust GSs in 3D settings.
Within the framework of a mean-field description, we investigate atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, with attraction between atoms, under the action of a strong transverse confinement and periodic [optical-lattice (OL)] axial potential. Using a combination of the variational approximation, one-dimensional (1D) nonpolynomial Schr\"odinger equation, and direct numerical solutions of the underlying 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we show that the ground state of the condensate is a soliton belonging to the semi-infinite band gap of the periodic potential. The soliton may be confined to a single cell of the lattice or extended to several cells, depending on the effective self-attraction strength
g (which is proportional to the number of atoms bound in the soliton) and depth of the potential,
V0, the increase of
V0 leading to strong compression of the soliton. We demonstrate that the OL is an effective tool to control the soliton's shape. It is found that, due to the 3D character of the underlying setting, the ground-state soliton collapses at a critical value of the strength,
g=gc, which gradually decreases with the increase of
V0; under typical experimental conditions, the corresponding maximum number of
7Li atoms in the soliton,
Nmax, ranges between 8000 and 4000. Examples of stable multipeaked solitons are also found in the first finite band gap of the lattice spectrum. The respective critical value
gc again slowly decreases with the increase of
V0, corresponding to ${N}_{\mathrm{max}}\ensuremath{\simeq}5000$.