Frontiers in multidimensional self-trapping of nonlinear fields and matter
By Y. Kartashov, G. Astrakharchik, Boris A. Malomed, L. Torner. Nature Reviews Physics, 2019
325 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract2D and 3D solitons and related states, such as quantum droplets, can appear in optical systems, atomic Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) and liquid crystals, among other physical settings. However, multidimensional solitary states supported by the standard cubic nonlinearity tend to be strongly unstable — a property far less present in 1D systems. Thus, the central challenge is to stabilize multidimensional states, and to that end numerous approaches have been proposed over the years. Most strategies involve non-cubic nonlinearities or using various potentials, including periodic ones. Completely new directions have recently emerged in two-component BECs with spin–orbit coupling, which have been predicted to support stable 2D and metastable 3D solitons. A recent breakthrough is the creation of 3D quantum droplets. These are self-sustained states existing in two-component BECs, stabilized by the quantum fluctuations around the underlying mean-field states. Here, we review recent results in this field and outline outstanding current challenges.Multidimensional self-trapped states exist in many models of physical systems. However, they are highly unstable in media with the universal cubic nonlinearity. We review different mechanisms that may stabilize them, including non-Kerr nonlinearities, spin–orbit coupling and quantum fluctuations, among others.Key pointsWe provide a brief summary of recent theoretical and experimental advances in the study of multidimensional solitons, chiefly in nonlinear optics, ultracold bosonic gases and liquid-crystal and magnetic media.We cover results for fundamental nonlinear modes and for topologically non-trivial states, such as vortex solitons, hopfions and skyrmions.The experimental realization of multidimensional solitons has proved to be more challenging than for 1D solitons owing to the propensity to instabilities of 2D and 3D states, both fundamental and topologically structured. We address different stabilization mechanisms that have been put forward to potentially observe multidimensional solitons, such as competing nonlinearities, linear and nonlinear potentials, spin–orbit coupling, quantum corrections and dissipative effects.Special attention is paid to recent theoretical and experimental results that produced stable 3D solitons in the form of quantum droplets in ultracold bosonic gases, the stability of which is secured by a macroscopic effect of quantum fluctuations around mean-field states.
Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5429aeb3f7599da8b9f716e21740641d766b5576
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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Citations in the corpus
- A new form of liquid matter: Quantum droplets (2020, background): “Therefore, an issue of profound interest is elaboration of physically relevant settings which admit stabilization of 2D and 3D self-trapped localized modes, fundamental and topologically structured ones alike [1–4].”