corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. A » Volume 64 » Issue 2
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. A 64, 021601(R) (2001) [4 pages]

Modulational instability of spinor condensates

Download: PDF (308 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Nicholas P. Robins1, Weiping Zhang1,2, Elena A. Ostrovskaya1, and Yuri S. Kivshar1
1Nonlinear Physics Group, Research School of Physical Sciences & Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
2Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tuscon, Arizona 85721

Received 6 March 2001; published 17 July 2001

We demonstrate, analytically and numerically, that the ferromagnetic phase of the spinor Bose-Einstein condenstate may experience modulational instability of the ground state leading to a fragmentation of the spin domains. Together with other nonlinear effects in the atomic optics of ultracold gases (such as coherent photoassociation and four-wave mixing) this effect provides one more analogy between coherent matter waves and light waves in nonlinear optics.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.64.021601
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.64.021601
PACS:
03.75.Fi, 05.30.Jp
 
< Previous Article | Next Article >