Scattering of matter wave solitons on localized potentials

Abstract

We present numerical and analytical results for the reflection and transmission properties of matter wave solitons impinging on localized scattering potentials in one spatial dimension. Our mean field analysis identifies regimes where the solitons behave more like waves or more like particles as a result of the interplay between the dispersive wave propagation and the attractive interactions between the atoms. For a bright soliton propagating together with a dark soliton void in a two-species Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms with repulsive interactions, we find different reflection and transmission properties of the dark and the bright components.