Crossover dynamics of dispersive shocks in Bose-Einstein condensates characterized by two- and three-body interactions

Abstract

We show that the perturbative nonlinearity associated with three-atom interactions, competing with standard two-body repulsive interactions, can change dramatically the evolution of one-dimensional (1D) dispersive shock waves in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In particular, we prove the existence of a rich crossover dynamics, ranging from the formation of multiple shocks regularized by nonlinear oscillations culminating in coexisting dark and antidark matter waves to 1D-soliton collapse. For a given scattering length, all these different regimes can be accessed by varying the density of atoms in the condensate. © 2012 American Physical Society.