Stable solitons in coupled Ginzburg–Landau equations describing Bose–Einstein condensates and nonlinear optical waveguides and cavities

Abstract We introduce a model of a two-core system, based on an equation of the Ginzburg–Landau (GL) type, coupled to another GL equation, which may be linear or nonlinear. One core is active, featuring intrinsic linear gain, while the other one is lossy. The difference from previously studied models involving a pair of linearly coupled active and passive cores is that the stabilization of the system is provided not by a linear diffusion-like term, but rather by a cubic or quintic dissipative term in the active core. Physical realizations of the models include systems from nonlinear optics (semiconductor waveguides or optical cavities), and a double-cigar-shaped Bose–Einstein condensate with a negative scattering length, in which the active “cigar” is an atom laser. The replacement of the diffusion term by the nonlinear loss is principally important, as diffusion does not occur in these physical media, while nonlinear loss is possible. A stability region for solitary pulses is found in the system’s parameter space by means of direct simulations. One border of the region is also found in an analytical form by means of a perturbation theory. Moving pulses are studied too. It is concluded that collisions between them are completely elastic, provided that the relative velocity is not too small. The pulses withstand multiple tunneling through potential barriers. Robust quantum-rachet regimes of motion of the pulse in a time-periodic asymmetric potential are found as well.