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arXiv:2504.12980 · Physical Review Letters

Motion of Ferrodark Solitons in Trapped Superfluids: Spin Corrections and Emergent Oscillators

Jiangnan Biguo, Xiaoquan Yu

Published Oct 17, 2025• 1 citation

Abstract

We propose a framework for topological soliton dynamics in trapped spinor superfluids, decomposing the force acting on the soliton by the surrounding fluid into the buoyancy force and spin corrections arising from the density depletion at soliton core and the coupling between the orbital motion and the spin mixing, respectively. Our formulation applies to large-amplitude soliton motion in general superfluids with spin degrees of freedom under arbitrary external potentials. For ferrodark solitons (FDSs) in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, the spin correction could diverge, change the direction of the total force, and enable mapping the FDS motion in a harmonic trap to the atomic-mass particle dynamics in an emergent quartic potential. Initially placing a type-I FDS near the trap center, a single-sided oscillation happens, which maps to the particle moving around a local minimum of the emergent double-well potential. As the initial distance of a type-II FDS from the trap center increases, the motion exhibits three regimes: trap-centered harmonic and anharmonic oscillations followed by single-sided oscillations. Correspondingly the emergent quartic potential undergoes a transition from a single minimum to a double-well shape, where the particle motion shifts from oscillating around the single minimum to crossing between two minima via the local maximum, then the symmetry-breaking motion around one of the two minima. In a hard-wall trap with linear potential, the FDS motion maps to a harmonic oscillator.

DOI: 10.1103/kkw5-ddth

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We propose a framework for topological soliton dynamics in trapped spinor superfluids, decomposing the force acting on the soliton by the surrounding fluid into the buoyancy force and spin corrections arising from the density depletion at soliton core and the coupling between the orbital motion and the spin mixing, respectively. Our formulation applies to large-amplitude soliton motion in general superfluids with spin degrees of freedom under arbitrary external potentials. For ferrodark solitons (FDSs) in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, the spin correction could diverge, change the direction of the total force, and enable mapping the FDS motion in a harmonic trap to the atomic-mass particle dynamics in an emergent quartic potential. Initially placing a type-I FDS near the trap center, a single-sided oscillation happens, which maps to the particle moving around a local minimum of the emergent double-well potential. As the initial distance of a type-II FDS from the trap center increases, the motion exhibits three regimes: trap-centered harmonic and anharmonic oscillations followed by single-sided oscillations. Correspondingly the emergent quartic potential undergoes a transition from a single minimum to a double-well shape, where the particle motion shifts from oscillating around the single minimum to crossing between two minima via the local maximum, then the symmetry-breaking motion around one of the two minima. In a hard-wall trap with linear potential, the FDS motion maps to a harmonic oscillator.

Exact propagating topological solitons are found in the easy-plane phase of ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, manifesting themselves as kinks in the transverse magnetization. Propagation is only possible when the symmetry-breaking longitudinal magnetic field is applied. Such solitons have two types: a low energy branch with positive inertial mass and a higher energy branch with negative inertial mass. Both types become identical at the maximum speed, a new speed bound that is different from speed limits set by the elementary excitations. The physical mass, which accounts for the number density dip, is negative for both types. In a finite one-dimensional system subject to a linear potential, the soliton undergoes oscillations caused by transitions between the two types occurring at the maximum speed.

We study collisions between a ferrodark soliton (FDS) and an antiFDS (

\mathbb{Z}_2

kinks in the spin order) in the easy-plane phase of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). For a type-I pair (type-I FDS-antiFDS pair) at low incoming velocities, the pair annihilates followed by the formation of an extremely long-lived dissipative breather on a stable background, a spatially localized wave packet with out-of-phase oscillating magnetization and mass superfluid densities. Periodic emissions of spin and density waves cause breather energy dissipation and we find that the breather energy decays logarithmically in time. When the incoming velocity is larger than a critical velocity at which a stationary FDS-antiFDS pair forms, a pair with finite separating velocity is reproduced. When approaching the critical velocity from below, we find that the lifetime of the stationary type-I pair shows a power-law divergence, resembling a critical behavior. In contrast, a type-II pair (type-II FDS-antiFDS pair) never annihilates and only exhibits reflection. For collisions of a mixed type FDS-antiFDS pair, as

\mathbb{Z}_2

kinks in the spin order, reflection occurs in the topological structure of the magnetization while the mass superfluid density profiles pass through each other, manifesting spin-mass separation.

We study the dynamics of ring ferrodark solitons (FDSs) in a homogeneous quasi-two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In contrast to the usual expanding dynamics of ring dark solitons in a homogeneous system, the ring FDS radius exhibits self-sustained oscillations accompanied by the nematic tensor breathing at the magnetization-vanishing ring FDS core. When the ring radius greatly exceeds the FDS width, motion is nearly elastic, and we derive the ring-radius equation of motion (EOM) which admits exact solutions. This equation can be recast into a form analogous to the inviscid Rayleigh-Plesset equation governing spherical bubble dynamics in classical fluids, but with anomalous terms. At the ring FDS core, the nematic tensor motion is parameterized by a single parameter that connects the two types of FDSs monotonically. Beyond the hydrodynamics regime, density and spin wave emissions become significant and cause energy loss, shrinking the ring FDS radius oscillation; below a threshold, collapses occur followed by the ring FDS annihilation. In the zero quadratic Zeeman energy limit, the ring radius and eigenvalues of the nematic tensor become stationary, while oscillations of the nematic tensor components, driven by the ring curvature, persist at the core. Excellent agreements are found between analytical predictions and numerical simulations.

We develop an analytical description of static ferrodark solitons, the

{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}

topological defects in the magnetic order, in the easy-plane phase of ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates. We find that the type-I ferrodark soliton has a single width while the type-II ferrodark soliton exhibits two characteristic length scales. The proposed Ans\"atze show excellent agreement with numerical results. Spin-singlet amplitudes, nematic tensor densities, and nematic currents of ferrodark solitons are also discussed. The

{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}

topological defects in the mass superfluid order, dark-dark-dark vector solitons, are obtained exactly in the parameter regime where exact ferrodark solitons exist. The dark-dark-dark vector soliton has higher excitation energy than ferrodark solitons.

We present three types of dark solitons in quasi–one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled repulsive Bose-Einstein condensates. Among these families, two are always stable, while the third one is only stable sufficiently close to the linear regime. The solitons' excitation spectra reveal the potential existence of a second anomalous mode. While the first such mode describes the soliton oscillatory motion in a parabolic trap, the second, when present, reflects the double-well structure of the underlying single-particle spectrum. This novel mode results in moving density stripes in the vicinity of the soliton core, or in an out-of-phase oscillation of the constituent components, with little effect on the nearly stationary striped total density of the composite soliton.

We theoretically investigate the behavior of dark solitons in a one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gas in harmonic traps by solving self-consistently the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations. The dark soliton---to be created by phase imprinting in future experiments---is characterized by a real order parameter, which changes sign at a point node and hosts localized Andreev bound states near the node. By considering both cases of a single soliton and multiple solitons, we find that the energy of these bound states decreases to zero when the system is tuned to enter the topological superfluid phase by increasing an external Zeeman field. As a result, two Majorana fermions emerge in the vicinity of each soliton, in addition to the well-known Majorana fermions at the trap edges associated with the nontrivial topology of the superfluid. We propose that the soliton-induced Majorana fermions can be directly observed by using spatially resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy or indirectly probed by measuring the density profile at the point node. For the latter, the deep minimum in the density profile will disappear due to the occupation of the soliton-induced zero-energy Majorana fermion modes. Our prediction could be tested in a resonantly interacting spin-orbit coupled

{}^{40}\text{K}

Fermi gas confined in a two-dimensional optical lattice.