New Journal of Physics (Jan 2018)

Non-integrable dynamics of matter-wave solitons in a density-dependent gauge theory

  • R J Dingwall,
  • M J Edmonds,
  • J L Helm,
  • B A Malomed,
  • P Öhberg

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aab29e
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 4
p. 043004

Abstract

Read online

We study interactions between bright matter-wave solitons which acquire chiral transport dynamics due to an optically-induced density-dependent gauge potential. Through numerical simulations, we find that the collision dynamics feature several non-integrable phenomena, from inelastic collisions including population transfer and radiation losses to the formation of short-lived bound states and soliton fission. An effective quasi-particle model for the interaction between the solitons is derived by means of a variational approximation, which demonstrates that the inelastic nature of the collision arises from a coupling of the gauge field to velocities of the solitons. In addition, we derive a set of interaction potentials which show that the influence of the gauge field appears as a short-range potential, that can give rise to both attractive and repulsive interactions.

Keywords