Fundamental solitons in discrete lattices with a delayed nonlinear response

The formation of unstaggered localized modes in dynamical lattices can be supported by the interplay of discreteness and nonlinearity with a finite relaxation time. In rapidly responding nonlinear media, on-site discrete solitons are stable, and their broad inter-site counterparts are marginally stable, featuring a virtually vanishing real instability eigenvalue. The solitons become unstable in the case of the slowly relaxing nonlinearity. The character of the instability alters with the increase of the delay time, which leads to a change in the dynamics of unstable discrete solitons. They form robust localized breathers in rapidly relaxing media, and decay into oscillatory diffractive pattern in the lattices with a slow nonlinear response. Marginally stable solitons can freely move across the lattice.Comment: 8 figure

Discrete localized modes supported by an inhomogeneous defocusing nonlinearity

We report that infinite and semi-infinite lattices with spatially inhomogeneous self-defocusing (SDF)\ onsite nonlinearity, whose strength increases rapidly enough toward the lattice periphery, support stable unstaggered (UnST) discrete bright solitons, which do not exist in lattices with the spatially uniform SDF nonlinearity. The UnST solitons coexist with stable staggered (ST) localized modes, which are always possible under the defocusing onsite nonlinearity. The results are obtained in a numerical form, and also by means of variational approximation (VA). In the semi-infinite (truncated) system, some solutions for the UnST surface solitons are produced in an exact form. On the contrary to surface discrete solitons in uniform truncated lattices, the threshold value of the norm vanishes for the UnST solitons in the present system. Stability regions for the novel UnST solitons are identified. The same results imply the existence of ST discrete solitons in lattices with the spatially growing self-focusing nonlinearity, where such solitons cannot exist either if the nonlinearity is homogeneous. In addition, a lattice with the uniform onsite SDF nonlinearity and exponentially decaying inter-site coupling is introduced and briefly considered too. Via a similar mechanism, it may also support UnST discrete solitons, under the action of the SDF nonlinearity. The results may be realized in arrayed optical waveguides and collisionally inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in deep optical lattices. A generalization for a two-dimensional system is briefly considered too.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Interface solitons in one-dimensional locally-coupled lattice systems

Fundamental solitons pinned to the interface between two discrete lattices coupled at a single site are investigated. Serially and parallel-coupled identical chains (\textit{System 1} and \textit{System 2}), with the self-attractive on-site cubic nonlinearity, are considered in one dimension. In these two systems, which can be readily implemented as arrays of nonlinear optical waveguides, symmetric, antisymmetric and asymmetric solitons are investigated by means of the variational approximation (VA) and numerical methods. The VA demonstrates that the antisymmetric solitons exist in the entire parameter space, while the symmetric and asymmetric modes can be found below some critical value of the coupling parameter. Numerical results confirm these predictions for the symmetric and asymmetric fundamental modes. The existence region of numerically found antisymmetric solitons is also limited by a certain value of the coupling parameter. The symmetric solitons are destabilized via a supercritical symmetry-breaking pitchfork bifurcation, which gives rise to stable asymmetric solitons, in both systems. The antisymmetric fundamental solitons, which may be stable or not, do not undergo any bifurcation. In bistability regions stable antisymmetric solitons coexist with either symmetric or asymmetric ones.Comment: 9 figure

Localized modes in mini-gaps opened by periodically modulated intersite coupling in two-dimensional nonlinear lattices

Spatially periodic modulation of the intersite coupling in two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear lattices modifies the eigenvalue spectrum by opening mini-gaps in it. This work aims to build stable localized modes in the new bandgaps. Numerical analysis shows that single-peak and composite two- and four-peak discrete static solitons and breathers emerge as such modes in certain parameter areas inside the mini-gaps of the 2D superlattice induced by the periodic modulation of the intersite coupling along both directions.The single-peak solitons and four-peak discrete solitons are stable in a part of their existence domain, while unstable stationary states (in particular, two-soliton complexes) may readily transform into robust localized breathers.Comment: Chaos, in pres

Extreme Events in Nonlinear Lattices

The spatiotemporal complexity induced by perturbed initial excitations through the development of modulational instability in nonlinear lattices with or without disorder, may lead to the formation of very high amplitude, localized transient structures that can be named as extreme events. We analyze the statistics of the appearance of these collective events in two different universal lattice models; a one-dimensional nonlinear model that interpolates between the integrable Ablowitz-Ladik (AL) equation and the nonintegrable discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger (DNLS) equation, and a two-dimensional disordered DNLS equation. In both cases, extreme events arise in the form of discrete rogue waves as a result of nonlinear interaction and rapid coalescence between mobile discrete breathers. In the former model, we find power-law dependence of the wave amplitude distribution and significant probability for the appearance of extreme events close to the integrable limit. In the latter model, more importantly, we find a transition in the the return time probability of extreme events from exponential to power-law regime. Weak nonlinearity and moderate levels of disorder, corresponding to weak chaos regime, favour the appearance of extreme events in that case.Comment: Invited Chapter in a Special Volume, World Scientific. 19 pages, 9 figure

Nonlinear symmetry breaking of Aharonov-Bohm cages

We study the influence of mean field cubic nonlinearity on Aharonov-Bohm caging in a diamond lattice with synthetic magnetic flux. For sufficiently weak nonlinearities the Aharonov-Bohm caging persists as periodic nonlinear breathing dynamics. Above a critical nonlinearity, symmetry breaking induces a sharp transition in the dynamics and enables stronger wavepacket spreading. This transition is distinct from other flatband networks, where continuous spreading is induced by effective nonlinear hopping or resonances with delocalized modes, and is in contrast to the quantum limit, where two-particle hopping enables arbitrarily large spreading. This nonlinear symmetry breaking transition is readily observable in femtosecond laser-written waveguide arrays.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

High- and low-frequency phonon modes in dipolar quantum gases trapped in deep lattices

We study normal modes propagating on top of the stable uniform background in arrays of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) droplets trapped in a deep optical lattice. Both the on-site mean-field dynamics of the droplets and their displacement due to the repulsive dipole-dipole interactions (DDIs) are taken into account. Dispersion relations for two modes, \textit{viz}., high- and low- frequency counterparts of optical and acoustic phonon modes in condensed matter, are derived analytically and verified by direct simulations, for both cases of the repulsive and attractive contact interactions. The (counterpart of the) optical-phonon branch does not exist without the DDIs. These results are relevant in the connection to emerging experimental techniques enabling real-time imaging of the condensate dynamics and direct experimental measurement of phonon dispersion relations in BECs.Comment: Physical Review A, in pres

Nonlinear localized flatband modes with spin-orbit coupling

We report the coexistence and properties of stable compact localized states (CLSs) and discrete solitons (DSs) for nonlinear spinor waves on a flatband network with spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The system can be implemented by means of a binary Bose-Einstein condensate loaded in the corresponding optical lattice. In the linear limit, the SOC opens a minigap between flat and dispersive bands in the system's bandgap structure, and preserves the existence of CLSs at the flatband frequency, simultaneously lowering their symmetry. Adding onsite cubic nonlinearity, the CLSs persist and remain available in an exact analytical form, with frequencies which are smoothly tuned into the minigap. Inside of the minigap, the CLS and DS families are stable in narrow areas adjacent to the FB. Deep inside the semi-infinite gap, both the CLSs and DSs are stable too.Comment: 10 figures, Physical Review B, in pres

Soliton stability and collapse in the discrete nonpolynomial Schrodinger equation with dipole-dipole interactions

The stability and collapse of fundamental unstaggered bright solitons in the discrete Schrodinger equation with the nonpolynomial on-site nonlinearity, which models a nearly one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a deep optical lattice, are studied in the presence of the long-range dipole-dipole (DD) interactions. The cases of both attractive and repulsive contact and DD interaction are considered. The results are summarized in the form of stability/collapse diagrams in the parametric space of the model, which demonstrate that the the attractive DD interactions stabilize the solitons and help to prevent the collapse. Mobility of the discrete solitons is briefly considered too.Comment: 6 figure

Discrete solitons in an array of quantum dots

We develop a theory for the interaction of classical light fields with an a chain of coupled quantum dots (QDs), in the strong-coupling regime, taking into account the local-field effects. The QD chain is modeled by a one-dimensional (1D) periodic array of two-level quantum particles with tunnel coupling between adjacent ones. The local-field effect is taken into regard as QD depolarization in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation. The dynamics of the chain is described by a system of two discrete nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger (DNLS) equations for local amplitudes of the probabilities of the ground and first excited states. The two equations are coupled by a cross-phase-modulation cubic terms, produced by the local-field action, and by linear terms too. In comparison with previously studied DNLS systems, an essentially new feature is a phase shift between the intersite-hopping constants in the two equations. By means of numerical solutions, we demonstrate that, in this QD chain, Rabi oscillations (RO) self-trap into stable bright\textit{\ Rabi solitons} or \textit{Rabi breathers}. Mobility of the solitons is considered too. The related behavior of observable quantities, such as energy, inversion, and electric-current density, is given a physical interpretation. The results apply to a realistic region of physical parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, Phys. Rev. B, in pres