Bubbles and W-shaped solitons in Kerr media with fractional diffraction

Abstract

We demonstrate that, with the help of a Gaussian potential barrier, dark modes in the form of a local depression ("bubbles") can be supported by the repulsive Kerr nonlinearity in combination with fractional dimension. Similarly, W-shaped modes are supported by a double potential barrier. Families of the modes are constructed in a numerical form, and also by means of the Thomas-Fermi and variational approximations. All these modes are stable, which is predicted by computation of eigenvalues for small perturbations and confirmed by direct numerical simulations.