Feshbach Resonance Management for Bose-Einstein Condensates

Abstract

An experimentally realizable scheme of periodic sign-changing modulation of the scattering length is proposed for Bose-Einstein condensates similar to dispersion-management schemes in fiber optics. Because of controlling the scattering length via the Feshbach resonance, the scheme is named Feshbach-resonance management. The modulational-instability analysis of the quasiuniform condensate driven by this scheme leads to an analog of the Kronig-Penney model. The ensuing stable localized structures are found. These include breathers, which oscillate between the Thomas-Fermi and Gaussian configuration, or may be similar to the 2-soliton state of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, and a nearly static state ("odd soliton") with a nested dark soliton. An overall phase diagram for breathers is constructed, and full stability of the odd solitons is numerically established.