Solitons in tunnel-coupled repulsive and attractive condensates

Abstract

We study solitons in the condensate trapped in a double-well potential with far-separated wells, when the s-wave scattering length has different signs in the two parts of the condensate. By employing the coupled-mode approximation it is shown that there are unusual stable bright solitons in the condensate, with the larger share of atoms being gathered in the repulsive part. Such unusual solitons derive their stability from the quantum tunneling and correspond to the strong coupling between the parts of the condensate. The ground state of the system, however, corresponds to weak coupling between the condensate parts, with the larger share of atoms being gathered in the attractive part of the condensate.