title: Parity-time-symmetric solitons in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and the influence of varying complex potentials: A variational approach.
abstract: Dynamics and properties of nonlinear matter waves in a trapped BEC subject to a PT-symmetric linear potential, with the trap in the form of a super-Gaussian potential, are investigated via a variational approach accounting for the complex nature of the soliton. In the process, we address how the shape of the imaginary part of the potential, that is, a gain-loss mechanism, affects the self-localization and the stability of the condensate. Variational results are found to be in good agreement with full numerical simulations for predicting the shape, width, and chemical potential of the condensate until the PT breaking point. Variational computation also predicts the existence of solitary solution only above a threshold in the particle number as the gain-loss is increased, in agreement with numerical simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin 682022, India.
authors.forename: Lini
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Devassy
authors.affiliation: Centro de Física do Porto, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, R. Campo Alegre 687, Porto 4169-007, Portugal.
authors.forename: Chandroth P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Jisha
authors.affiliation: Optics Laboratory, Tampere University of Technology, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland.|Nonlinear Optics and OptoElectronics Lab (NooEL), University "Roma Tre," Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alberucci
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin 682022, India.
authors.forename: V C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Kuriakose