139 research outputs found
Loop structure of the lowest Bloch band for a Bose-Einstein condensate
We investigate analytically and numerically Bloch waves for a Bose--Einstein
condensate in a sinusoidal external potential. At low densities the dependence
of the energy on the quasimomentum is similar to that for a single particle,
but at densities greater than a critical one the lowest band becomes
triple-valued near the boundary of the first Brillouin zone and develops the
structure characteristic of the swallow-tail catastrophe. We comment on the
experimental consequences of this behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure
Fast soliton scattering by delta impurities
We study the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (nonlinear Schroedinger equation) with
a repulsive delta function potential. We show that a high velocity incoming
soliton is split into a transmitted component and a reflected component. The
transmitted mass (L^2 norm squared) is shown to be in good agreement with the
quantum transmission rate of the delta function potential. We further show that
the transmitted and reflected components resolve into solitons plus dispersive
radiation, and quantify the mass and phase of these solitons.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figure
Modulational Instability in Equations of KdV Type
It is a matter of experience that nonlinear waves in dispersive media,
propagating primarily in one direction, may appear periodic in small space and
time scales, but their characteristics --- amplitude, phase, wave number, etc.
--- slowly vary in large space and time scales. In the 1970's, Whitham
developed an asymptotic (WKB) method to study the effects of small
"modulations" on nonlinear periodic wave trains. Since then, there has been a
great deal of work aiming at rigorously justifying the predictions from
Whitham's formal theory. We discuss recent advances in the mathematical
understanding of the dynamics, in particular, the instability of slowly
modulated wave trains for nonlinear dispersive equations of KdV type.Comment: 40 pages. To appear in upcoming title in Lecture Notes in Physic
Uncertainty estimates and L_2 bounds for the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation
We consider the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky (KS) equation in one spatial dimension
with periodic boundary conditions. We apply a Lyapunov function argument
similar to the one first introduced by Nicolaenko, Scheurer, and Temam, and
later improved by Collet, Eckmann, Epstein and Stubbe, and Goodman, to prove
that ||u||_2 < C L^1.5. This result is slightly weaker than that recently
announced by Giacomelli and Otto, but applies in the presence of an additional
linear destabilizing term. We further show that for a large class of Lyapunov
functions \phi the exponent 1.5 is the best possible from this line of
argument. Further, this result together with a result of Molinet gives an
improved estimate for L_2 boundedness of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation in
thin rectangular domains in two spatial dimensions.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure; typos corrected, references added; figure
modifie
Tunable tunneling: An application of stationary states of Bose-Einstein condensates in traps of finite depth
The fundamental question of how Bose-Einstein condensates tunnel into a
barrier is addressed. The cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a finite
square well potential, which models a Bose-Einstein condensate in a
quasi-one-dimensional trap of finite depth, is solved for the complete set of
localized and partially localized stationary states, which the former evolve
into when the nonlinearity is increased. An immediate application of these
different solution types is tunable tunneling. Magnetically tunable Feshbach
resonances can change the scattering length of certain Bose-condensed atoms,
such as Rb, by several orders of magnitude, including the sign, and
thereby also change the mean field nonlinearity term of the equation and the
tunneling of the wavefunction. We find both linear-type localized solutions and
uniquely nonlinear partially localized solutions where the tails of the
wavefunction become nonzero at infinity when the nonlinearity increases. The
tunneling of the wavefunction into the non-classical regime and thus its
localization therefore becomes an external experimentally controllable
parameter.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Modulational instability in cigar shaped Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices
A self consistent theory of a cigar shaped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)
periodically modulated by a laser beam is presented. We show, both
theoretically and numerically, that modulational instability/stability is the
mechanism by which wavefunctions of soliton type can be generated in cigar
shaped BEC subject to a 1D optical lattice. The theory explains why bright
solitons can exist in BEC with positive scattering length and why condensate
with negative scattering length can be stable and give rise to dark solitary
pulses.Comment: Submitted, 4 pages, 3 figures. Revised versio
Bogoliubov sound speed in periodically modulated Bose-Einstein condensates
We study the Bogoliubov excitations of a Bose-condensed gas in an optical
lattice. Of primary interest is the long wavelength phonon dispersion for both
current-free and current-carrying condensates. We obtain the dispersion
relation by carrying out a systematic expansion of the Bogoliubov equations in
powers of the phonon wave vector. Our result for the current-carrying case
agrees with the one recently obtained by means of a hydrodynamic theory.Comment: 16 pages, no figure
Bose-Einstein condensates in standing waves: The cubic nonlinear Schroedinger equation with a periodic potential
We present a new family of stationary solutions to the cubic nonlinear
Schroedinger equation with a Jacobian elliptic function potential. In the limit
of a sinusoidal potential our solutions model a dilute gas Bose-Einstein
condensate trapped in a standing light wave. Provided the ratio of the height
of the variations of the condensate to its DC offset is small enough, both
trivial phase and nontrivial phase solutions are shown to be stable. Numerical
simulations suggest such stationary states are experimentally observable.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Spatial optical solitons in nonlinear photonic crystals
We study spatial optical solitons in a one-dimensional nonlinear photonic
crystal created by an array of thin-film nonlinear waveguides, the so-called
Dirac-comb nonlinear lattice. We analyze modulational instability of the
extended Bloch-wave modes and also investigate the existence and stability of
bright, dark, and ``twisted'' spatially localized modes in such periodic
structures. Additionally, we discuss both similarities and differences of our
general results with the simplified models of nonlinear periodic media
described by the discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation, derived in the
tight-binding approximation, and the coupled-mode theory, valid for shallow
periodic modulations of the optical refractive index.Comment: 15 pages, 21 figure
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