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Matter-wave dark solitons: stochastic versus analytical results
S P Cockburn1, H E Nistazakis, T P Horikis
1School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
The dynamics of dark matter-wave solitons in elongated atomic condensates are discussed at finite temperatures. Simulations with the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation reveal a noticeable, experimentally observable spread in individual soliton trajectories, attributed to inherent fluctuations in both phase and density of the underlying medium. Averaging over a number of such trajectories (as done in experiments) washes out such background fluctuations, revealing a well-defined temperature-dependent temporal growth in the oscillation amplitude. The average soliton dynamics is well captured by the simpler dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation, both numerically and via an analytically derived equation for the soliton center based on perturbation theory for dark solitons.
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