Dark-antidark spinor solitons in spin-1 Bose gases

Abstract

We consider a one-dimensional trapped spin-1 Bose gas and numerically explore families of its solitonic solutions, namely antidark-dark-antidark (ADDAD), as well as dark-antidark-dark (DADD) solitary waves. Their existence and stability properties are systematically investigated within the experimentally accessible easy-plane ferromagnetic phase by means of a continuation over the atom number as well as the quadratic Zeeman energy. It is found that ADDADs are substantially more dynamically robust than DADDs. The latter are typically unstable within the examined parameter range. The dynamical evolution of both of these states is explored and the implication of their potential unstable evolution is studied. Some of the relevant observed possibilities involve, e.g., symmetry-breaking instability manifestations for the ADDAD, as well as splitting of the DADD into a right- and a left-moving dark-antidark pair with the anti-darks residing in a different component as compared to prior to the splitting. In the latter case, the structures are seen to disperse upon long-time propagation.