Section:
New Results
Second order averaging for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with strong
anisotropic potential
Participants :
Florian Méhats, François Castella.
In [10] , we consider the three dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) describing a Bose-
Einstein Condensate (BEC) which is highly confined in vertical direction. The confining potential induces high
oscillations in time. If the confinement in the direction is a harmonic trap – an approximation which is widely
used in physical experiments – the very special structure of the spectrum of the confinement operator implies that
the oscillations are periodic in time. Based on this observation, it can be proved that the GPE can be averaged out
with an error of order of , which is the typical period of the oscillations. In this article, we construct a more
accurate averaged model, which approximates the GPE up to errors of order . Then,
expansions of this model over the eigenfunctions (modes) of the confining operator in the -direction are
given in view of numerical applications. Efficient numerical methods are constructed to solve the GPE with
cylindrical symmetry in 3D and the approximation model with radial symmetry in 2D, and numerical results are
presented for various kinds of initial data.