Bulk soliton dynamics in bosonic topological insulators

We theoretically explore the dynamics of spatial solitons in nonlinear/interacting bosonic topological insulators. We employ a time-reversal broken Lieb-lattice analog of a Chern insulator and find that in the presence of a saturable nonlinearity, solitons bifurcate from a band of non-zero Chern number into the topological band gap with vortex-like structure on a sublattice. We numerically demonstrate the existence stable vortex solitons for a range of parameters and that the lattice soliton dynamics are subject to the anomalous velocity associated with large Berry curvature at the topological Lieb band edge. The features of the vortex solitons are well described by a new underlying continuum Dirac model. We…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: DMS-1352353, 1352353, 1509546, ECCS-1509546, 1312874, DMS-1312874, CAREER, DMS-1620422, 1620422
• DA
  David and Lucile Packard Foundation

  Award: 2017-66821
• CE
  Charles E. Kaufman Foundation

  Award: KA2017-91788
• OO
  Office of Naval Research

  Awards: N00014-23-1-2102, N00014-18-1-2595, N00014
• DO
  Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems