# Stability of new exact solutions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation in a Poschl-Teller external potential

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes the stability of exact solutions to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with Pöschl-Teller potential, revealing conditions for instability and the effects of perturbations through analytic and numerical methods.

## Contribution

It provides new analytic stability criteria for exact solutions of the NLSE with Pöschl-Teller potential, considering both attractive and repulsive cases, using energy landscape and variational methods.

## Key findings

- Repulsive potential causes translational instability leading to wave splitting.
- Attractive potential solutions are more stable under small perturbations.
- Numerical simulations confirm analytic stability predictions.

## Abstract

We discuss the stability properties of the solutions of the general nonlinear \Schrodinger\ equation (NLSE) in 1+1 dimensions in an external potential derivable from a parity-time ($\PT$) symmetric superpotential $W(x)$ that we considered earlier \cite{PhysRevE.92.042901}. In particular we consider the nonlinear partial differential equation $ \{ i \, \partial_t + \partial_x^2 - V(x) + g | \psi(x,t) |^{2\kappa} \} \, \psi(x,t) = 0 \>, $ for arbitrary nonlinearity parameter $\kappa$, where $g= \pm1$ and $V$ is the well known P{\"o}schl-Teller potential which we allow to be repulsive as well as attractive. Using energy landscape methods, linear stability analysis as well as a time dependent variational approximation, we derive consistent analytic results for the domains of instability of these new exact solutions as a function of the strength of the external potential and $\kappa$. For the repulsive potential (and $g=+1$) we show that there is a translational instability which can be understood in terms of the energy landscape as a function of a stretching parameter and a translation parameter being a saddle near the exact solution. In this case, numerical simulations show that if we start with the exact solution, the initial wave function breaks into two pieces traveling in opposite directions. If we explore the slightly perturbed solution situations, a 1\% change in initial conditions can change significantly the details of how the wave function breaks into two separate pieces. For the attractive potential (and $g=+1$), changing the initial conditions by 1 \% modifies the domain of stability only slightly. For the case of the attractive potential and negative $g$ perturbed solutions merely oscillate with the oscillation frequencies predicted by the variational approximation.