Beating dark-dark solitons and Zitterbewegung in spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We present families of beating dark-dark solitons in spin-orbit (SO) coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. These families consist of solitons residing simultaneously in the two bands of the energy spectrum. The soliton components are characterized by two different spatial and temporal scales, which are identified by a multiscale expansion method. The solitons are "beating" ones, as they perform density oscillations with a characteristic frequency, relevant to Zitterbewegung (ZB). We find that spin oscillations may occur, depending on the parity of each soliton branch, which consequently lead to ZB oscillations of the beating dark solitons. Analytical results are corroborated by numerical simulations, illustrating the robustness of the solitons.