Physical Review E
Modulational instability of a modified Gross-Pitaevskii equation with higher-order nonlinearity
Xiu-Ying Qi, Ju-Kui Xue
Abstract
We consider the modulational instability (MI) of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) described by a modified Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation with higher-order nonlinearity both analytically and numerically. A new explicit time-dependent criterion for exciting the MI is obtained. It is shown that the higher-order term can either suppress or enhance the MI, which is interesting for control of the system instability. Importantly, we predict that with the help of the higher-order nonlinearity, the MI can also take place in a BEC with repulsively contact interactions. The analytical results are confirmed by direct numerical simulations.