Self-localized impurities embedded in a one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate and their quantum fluctuations

Abstract

We consider the self-localization of neutral impurity atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional model. Within the strong coupling approach, we show that the self-localized state exhibits parametric soliton behavior. The corresponding stationary states are analogous to the solitons of nonlinear optics and to the solitonic solutions of the Schr\"odinger-Newton equation (which appears in models that consider the connection between quantum mechanics and gravitation). In addition, we present a Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism to describe the quantum fluctuations around the product state of the strong coupling description. Our fluctuation calculations yield the excitation spectrum and reveal considerable corrections to the strong coupling description. The knowledge of the spectrum allows a spectroscopic detection of the impurity self-localization phenomenon.