Solitons in a Spin-Orbit-Coupled Spin-1 Bose-Einstein Condensate

Abstract

After the pioneering studies on spinor Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and after the realization of spin-orbit (SO) coupling in a spinor BEC of 87Rb and 23Na atoms, it is now realized that an SO-coupled BEC may reveal new physical phenomena not possible in a scalar BEC. For example, a new class of two- or three-dimensional vector soliton can be stabilized and observed in an SO-coupled BEC, whereas such a soliton is unstable in a scalar BEC. In this paper, we present a review on solitons in an SO-coupled spin-1 spinor BEC in one, two, and three space dimensions. In addition to the static properties of these solitons, we also consider their dynamics of motion with a constant velocity and collision between two solitons.