Classification of dark solitons via topological vector potentials

Phase characters of optical dark solitons with third-order dispersion and delayed nonlinear response

Dark soliton is usually seen as one of the simplest topological solitons, due to phase shift across its intensity dip. We investigate phase characters of single-valley dark soliton (SVDS) and double-valley dark soliton (DVDS) in a single-mode optical fiber with third-order dispersion and delayed nonlinear response. Notably, two different phase shifts can produce an SVDS with the same velocity under some conditions, which is not admitted for a dark soliton with only the second-order dispersion and self-phase modulation, whose phase shift and velocity is a one-to-one match. This phase property of SVDS can be used to explain the generation of previously reported DVDS in Hirota equation and make DVDSs show two types of phase profiles. Moreover, the different topological vector potentials underlying the distinct phase profiles have been uncovered. We further explore the collision properties of the DVDSs by analyzing their topological phases. Strikingly, the inelastic collision can lead to the conversion between the two types of phase profiles for DVDS. The results reveal that inelastic or elastic collision can be judged by analyzing virtual topological magnetic fields.

Multivalley dark solitons in multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interactions

We obtain multivalley dark soliton solutions with asymmetric or symmetric profiles in multicomponent repulsive Bose-Einstein condensates by developing the Darboux transformation method. We demonstrate that the width-dependent parameters of solitons significantly affect the velocity ranges and phase jump regions of multivalley dark solitons, in sharp contrast to scalar dark solitons. For double-valley dark solitons, we find that the phase jump is in the range [0,2π], which is quite different from that of the usual single-valley dark soliton. Based on our results, we argue that the phase jump of an n-valley dark soliton could be in the range [0,nπ], supported by our analysis extending up to five-component condensates. The interaction between a double-valley dark soliton and a single-valley dark soliton is further investigated, and we reveal a striking collision process in which the double-valley dark soliton is transformed into a breather after colliding with the single-valley dark soliton. Our analyses suggest that this breather transition exists widely in the collision processes involving multivalley dark solitons. The possibilities for observing these multivalley dark solitons in related Bose-Einstein condensates experiments are discussed.