In this work, we realize the soliton's negative mass regime, when a Bose-Einstein condensate is subjected to a harmonic confinement. We also discuss that this system is favorable for the formation of a bound state when an additional species is considered. When a time modulated optical lattice potential is introduced, the sinusoidal lattice modes lead to the generation of nonlinear resonances. A classical dynamical phase transition is also identified in this case through a superfluid to the insulating phase transition.
In this work, we realize the soliton's negative mass regime, when a Bose-Einstein condensate is subjected to a harmonic confinement. We also discuss that this system is favorable for the formation of a bound state when an additional species is considered. When a time modulated optical lattice potential is introduced, the sinusoidal lattice modes lead to the generation of nonlinear resonances. A classical dynamical phase transition is also identified in this case through a superfluid to the insulating phase transition.
We study Bose–Einstein condensate in the combined presence of time modulated optical lattice and harmonic trap in the mean-field approach. Through the self-similar method, we show the existence of sinusoidal lattice modes in this inhomogeneous system, commensurate with the lattice potential. A significant advantage of this system is wide tunability of the parameters through chirp management. The combined effect of the interaction, harmonic trap and lattice potential leads to the generation of nonlinear resonances, exactly where the matter wave changes its direction. When the harmonic trap is switched off, the BEC undergoes a nonlinear compression for the static optical lattice potential. For better understanding of chirp management and the nature of the sinusoidal excitation, we investigate the energy spectrum of the condensate, which clearly reveals the generation of nonlinear resonances in the appropriate regime. We have also identified a classical dynamical phase transition occurring in the system, where loss of superfluidity takes the superfluid phase to an insulating state.
We study the dynamics of one-dimensional solitons in the attractive and repulsive Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) loaded into an optical lattice (OL), which is combined with an external parabolic potential. First, we demonstrate analytically that, in the repulsive BEC, where the soliton is of the gap type, its effective mass is negative. This gives rise to a prediction for the experiment: such a soliton cannot be not held by the usual parabolic trap, but it can be captured (performing harmonic oscillations) by an anti-trapping inverted parabolic potential. We also study the motion of the soliton a in long system, concluding that, in the cases of both the positive and negative mass, it moves freely, provided that its amplitude is below a certain critical value; above it, the soliton’s velocity decreases due to the interaction with the OL. At a late stage, the damped motion becomes chaotic. We also investigate the evolution of a two-soliton pulse in the attractive model. The pulse generates a persistent breather, if its amplitude is not too large; otherwise, fusion into a single fundamental soliton takes place. Collisions between two solitons captured in the parabolic trap or anti-trap are considered too. Depending on their amplitudes and phase difference, the solitons either perform stable oscillations, colliding indefinitely many times, or merge into a single soliton. Effects reported in this work for BECs can also be formulated for optical solitons in nonlinear photonic crystals. In particular, the capture of the negative-mass soliton in the anti-trap implies that a bright optical soliton in a self-defocusing medium with a periodic structure of the refractive index may be stable in an anti-waveguide. 1 1
We study the dynamics of one-dimensional solitons in attractive and repulsive Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) loaded into an optical lattice (OL), which is combined with an external parabolic potential. First, we demonstrate analytically that, in the repulsive BEC, where the soliton is of the gap type, its effective mass is negative . This gives rise to a prediction for the experiment: such a soliton cannot be held by the usual parabolic trap, but it can be captured (performing slow harmonic oscillations, with a period that is estimated to be ∼0.01 s in realistic experimental conditions) by an anti-trapping inverted parabolic potential. We also study the motion of the soliton in a long system, concluding that, in the cases of both the positive and negative mass, it moves freely, provided that its amplitude is below a certain critical value; above it, the soliton's velocity decreases due to interaction with the OL. At a later stage, the damped motion becomes chaotic. We also investigate the evolution of a two-soliton pulse in the attractive model. The pulse generates a persistent breather, if its amplitude is not too large; otherwise, fusion into a single fundamental soliton takes place. Collisions between two solitons captured in the parabolic trap or anti-trap are considered too. Depending on their amplitudes and phase difference, the solitons either perform stable oscillations, colliding indefinitely many times, or merge into a single soliton. Effects reported in this work for BECs can also be formulated for optical solitons in nonlinear photonic crystals. In particular, the capture of the negative-mass soliton in the anti-trap implies that a bright optical soliton in a self-defocusing medium with a periodic structure of the refractive index may be stable in an anti-waveguide .
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a new state of matter, experimentally realized in a dilute alkali gas of weakly interacting bosons. The gas is cooled to very low temperatures, of the order of nano-Kelvin, at which point a large fraction of the atoms occupy the lowest quantum state. Under such conditions, the quantum effects become apparent on a macroscopic scale. Many fundamental ideas
of quantum mechanics have been realized and proven to be true in experiments,
by studying the Bose-Einstein condensates. Amongst them, the observation of
macroscopic matter wave interference, the creation of vortices, dark and bright
solitons etc, find special mention. The dynamics of this system in presence of an
optical lattice reveals a superfluid to Mott insulator quantum phase transition.
This has opened a new avenue for research on BEC and its applications. From
a theoretical standpoint, the dynamics of BEC can be described by means of an
effective mean-field theory. This formalism is much simpler than the many-body
Schr¨odinger equation and based on a classical nonlinear evolution equation, known
as Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The nonlinear nature of the GPE leads to several interesting phenomena like soliton propagation, vortices, four wave mixing etc.,
which are closely related to nonlinear fiber optics.
The present thesis deals with nonlinear excitations and different phases of BEC
and is organized as follows: after a brief introduction, in chapter two, we start
with BEC in a one-dimensional shallow optical lattice, experiencing both cubic
and quintic nonlinearity. A superfluid density wave, of twice the periodicity of
lattice potential, is identified. This indicates matter redistribution, where atoms
from neighbouring sites have been depleted leading to a density wave behaviour.
Interestingly, it ceases to exist when only one of these interactions is operative.
We predict the loss of superfluidity through a classical dynamical phase transition,
where modulational instability leads to the loss of phase coherence. In presence
of pure two-body interaction, the superfluid density shows a periodicity commensurate
with the lattice potential. Apart from the superfluid state, a density wave
insulating phase is also found to exist, possessing two frequency modulations commensurate
with the lattice potential. A dynamical phase transition connects the
superfluid phase with an insulating phase, which in turn, is connected with the
density wave insulating phase. The solutions are found to be marginally stable, as
per the Vakhitov-Kolokolov (VK) criterion.
Chapter three describes the dynamics of the atomic-molecular Bose-Einstein
condensate (AMBEC) by mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE), taking into
account the atom-molecular interaction, as well as atom-molecule inter-conversion.
The two-body atom-atom, atom-molecule and molecule-molecule interactions are
analogous to the cubic nonlinearity of the standard GPE, whereas, the quadratic
nonlinear term arising from the inter-conversion between atoms and molecules is
identical to the scenario in strongly coupled BEC in one dimension. The presence
of both weak and strong interactions adds further richness to this system. We
find the molecular BEC possesses a complex dark (grey) soliton, while the atomic condensate is a bright one. The energy and momentum of this system is computed
in order to see the effect of the both weak and strong interactions on Lieb mode
profile and compare it with the pure atomic condensate profile. Another class
of solutions exist in this system, where both atomic and molecular condensates
possess bright solitons.
In chapter four, we investigate the effect of a harmonic trap on the dynamics
of grey solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates. It is observed that, these nonlinear
excitations of the cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate have strong coupling
with the trap at low momenta and hence can be effectively isolated from the
Bogoliubov sound modes, which respond weakly to harmonic confinement. This
strong coupling with the trap also makes the grey soliton amenable for control and
manipulation through trap modulation and temporal variation of the two-body interaction.
We have shown that in presence of an expulsive oscillator trap, the grey
soliton gets amplified, while having a compression in its width. Exact solutions are
also obtained in case of the two component Bose-Einstein condensates (TBECs),
where one component is a grey soliton and the other a bright one. The presence
of the trap and inter-species interaction significantly affects the grey soliton dynamics.
Similar to the single component, in the present case, we have shown that
both grey and bright soliton can be compressed simultaneously. A detailed study
of the energy and momentum of the soliton is reported, in order to find the effect
of the trap on the Lieb mode.
In chapter five, we study a BEC-defect complex in a quasi-one dimensional
scenario, where the defect atom moves in the condensate with constant velocity.
Explicit solutions of the coupled mean-field equations, describing defect-grey soliton
dynamics are obtained, demonstrating the coexistence of grey soliton and a
localized defect. Unlike the case of dark soliton, where the defect trapping center
has vanishing superfluid density, the moving grey soliton necessarily possesses a finite superfluid component at the defect location. The presence of the defect can
lower the grey soliton’s maximum velocity, as compared to the defect free case,
where the maximum velocity is the sound velocity. We have also carried out the
stability analysis of the obtained solutions using renormalized momentum formalism
and Vakhitov-Kolokolov criteria and find that the obtained solutions are stable
through both the methods. The grey soliton’s energy gets substantially modified
through its interaction with the defect, opening up the possibility of its control
through defect dynamics.
Chapter six describes a parametrically forced Bose-Einstein condensate in the
presence of a general moving optical lattice. The interaction between the atoms in
the condensate and the time dependent lattice potential leads to a novel propagating
superfluid matter wave, which can be controlled through chirp management.
This system, when placed in a trap, accelerates and undergoes rapid nonlinear
compression, controlled by the chirp. The density achieves its maximum, when
the matter wave changes direction. It is also shown that this system exhibits dynamical
superfluid insulator transition, where superfluidity breaks down and the
condensate transits to an insulating phase. The stability has been investigated
using Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion and found that it depends on the chirp, as well
as on the nature of the atom-atom interaction. The exact expression for energy
is obtained and analyzed in detail to gain physical understanding of the chirp
management of the sinusoidal excitations and also the dynamical phase transition.
A parametrically forced Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is studied in the mean field approach for the case of a general moving optical lattice. The interaction between the atoms in the condensate and the time dependent lattice potential leads to a novel propagating superfluid matter wave, which can be controlled through chirp management. This system, when placed in a trap, accelerates and undergoes rapid nonlinear compression, controlled by the chirp. The density achieves its maximum, precisely when the matter wave changes direction. A dynamical phase transition is identified, which takes the superfluid phase to an insulating state. The exact expression for energy is obtained and analyzed in detail to gain physical understanding of the chirp management of the sinusoidal excitations and also the dynamical phase transition.
We study the dynamics of nonlinear localized excitations (‘solitons’) in two-dimensional (2D) Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with repulsive interactions, loaded into an optical lattice (OL), which is combined with an external parabolic potential. First, we demonstrate analytically that a broad (‘loosely bound’, LB) soliton state, based on a 2D Bloch function near the edge of the Brillouin zone (BZ), has a negative effective mass (while the mass of a localized state is positive near the BZ centre). The negative-mass soliton cannot be held by the usual trap, but it is safely confined by an inverted parabolic potential ( anti-trap ). Direct simulations demonstrate that the LB solitons (including those with intrinsic vorticity) are stable and can freely move on top of the OL. The frequency of the elliptic motion of the LB-soliton's centre in the anti-trapping potential is very close to the analytical prediction which treats the solition as a quasi-particle. In addition, the LB soliton of the vortex type features real rotation around its centre. We also find an abrupt transition, which occurs with the increase of the number of atoms, from the negative-mass LB states to tightly bound (TB) solitons. An estimate demonstrates that for the zero-vorticity states, the transition occurs when the number of atoms attains a critical number N cr ∼ 10 3 , while for the vortex the transition takes place at N cr ∼ 5 × 10 3 atoms. The positive-mass LB states constructed near the BZ centre (including vortices) can also move freely. The effects predicted for BECs also apply to optical spatial solitons in bulk photonic crystals.