Modulation instability and solitary-wave formation in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates (14 pages)

Guangri Jin, C. K. Kim

Kenichi Kasamatsu, Makoto Tsubota

I. Kourakis, P. K. Shukla, M. Marklund +1 more

钟宏华 邓海明

Kenichi Kasamatsu, Makoto Tsubota

We investigate nonlinear dynamics induced by the modulation instability of a two-component mixture in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. The nonlinear dynamics is examined using numerical simulations of the time-dependent coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations. The unstable modulation grows from initially miscible condensates into various types of vector solitary waves, depending on the combinations of the sign of the coupling constants (intracomponent and intercomponent). We discuss the detailed features of the modulation instability, dynamics of solitary wave formation, and an analogy with the collapsing dynamics in a single-component condensate with attractive interactions.

Kenichi Kasamatsu, Makoto Tsubota

The dynamics of multiple domain formation caused by the modulation instability of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in an axially symmetric trap are studied by numerically integrating the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations. The modulation instability induced by the intercomponent mean-field coupling occurs in the out-of-phase fluctuation of the wave function and leads to the formation of multiple domains that alternate from one domain to another, where the phase of one component jumps across the density dips where the domains of the other exist. This behavior is analogous to a soliton train, which explains the origin of the long lifetime of the spin domains observed by Miesner et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2228 (1999)]].