R. W. Sallatti, L. Tomio, D. E. Pelinovsky, and A. Gammal

Stability of dark solitons in a bubble Bose-Einstein condensate

Physical Review A 113 (2026) L041303 (6 pages)

Abstract:
TThe stability of nonlinear waves on curved surfaces is a problem of widespread interest across physics. Here, we establish the stability criteria for dark solitons on a spherical Bose-Einstein condensate. We demonstrate a sharp instability threshold in the nonlinear parameter, beyond which solitons decay into vortex dipoles via snake instabilities. Analytically and numerically, we prove this decay is dictated by a single unstable mode for each angular momentum m >= 2, which is a universal mechanism that controls the resulting vortex state. Unlike in the full three-dimensional case, where snake instabilities lead to vortex rings, a dark soliton confined to the surface of a bubble can only decay into vortex pairs.

Keywords:
Gross-Pitaevskii equation, dark solitons, spherical coordinates, spectral stability, creation of vortices