Scattering and Trapping of Nonlinear Schroedinger Solitons in External Potentials

Abstract

Soliton motion in some external potentials is studied using the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Solitons are scattered by a potential wall. Solitons propagate almost freely or are trapped in a periodic potential. The critical kinetic energy for reflection and trapping is evaluated approximately with a variational method.

9 pages, 7 figures