Gap solitons in the spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We report a diversity of stable gap solitons in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a spatially periodic Zeeman field. It is shown that the solitons, can be classified by the main physical symmetries they obey, i.e. symmetries with respect to parity (P), time (T), and internal degree of freedom, i.e. spin, (C) inversions. The conventional gap and gap-stripe solitons are obtained in lattices with different parameters. It is shown that solitons of the same type but obeying different symmetries can exist in the same lattice at different spatial locations. PT and CPT symmetric solitons have anti-ferromagnetic structure and are characterized respectively by nonzero and zero total magnetizations.