Multidimensional solitons in a low-dimensional periodic potential

Abstract

Using the variational approximation(VA) and direct simulations, we find stable 2D and 3D solitons in the self-attractive Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) with a potential which is uniform in one direction ($z$) and periodic in the others (but the quasi-1D potentials cannot stabilize 3D solitons). The family of solitons includes single- and multi-peaked ones. The results apply to Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in optical lattices (OLs), and to spatial or spatiotemporal solitons in layered optical media. This is the first prediction of {\em mobile} 2D and 3D solitons in BECs, as they keep mobility along $z$. Head-on collisions of in-phase solitons lead to their fusion into a collapsing pulse. Solitons colliding in adjacent OL-induced channels may form a bound state (BS), which then relaxes to a stable asymmetric form. An initially unstable soliton splits into a three-soliton BS. Localized states in the self-repulsive GPE with the low-dimensional OL are found too.