The dynamics of matter-wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) is
considerably affected by the presence of a surrounding thermal cloud and by
condensate depletion during its evolution. We analyze these aspects of BEC
soliton dynamics, using time-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (TDHFB) theory.
The condensate is initially prepared within a harmonic trap at finite
temperature, and solitonic behavior is studied by subsequently propagating the
TDHFB equations without confinement. Numerical results demonstrate the collapse
of the BEC via collisional emission of atom pairs into the thermal cloud,
resulting in splitting of the initial density into two solitonic structures
with opposite momentum. Each one of these solitary matter waves is a mixture of
condensed and noncondensed particles, constituting an analog of optical
random-phase solitons.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, new TDHFB result
