We develop a systematic analytical approach to consider the dynamics of linear and nonlinear excitations in trapped quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive atom-atom interactions. We show that, for a condensate strongly confined in two transverse directions, the ground state of the system involves the high-order eigenmodes of the transverse confining potential in the transverse directions and effective high-order Thomas-Fermi wave functions in the axial direction. The linear excitations of the system have a Bogoliubov-type spectrum with the excitation frequency varying slowly along the axial direction. We find that, in a weak nonlinear approximation, the amplitude of a nonlinear excitation is governed by a variable coefficient Korteweg–de Vries equation with additional terms contributed from the transverse structure and the inhomogeneity in the axial direction of the condensate, which results in varying amplitude, width, and velocity for dark solitons. Because of the inhomogeneity the dark solitons undergo deformation and emit radiations when traveling along the axial direction. We finally demonstrate that a dark soliton will disintegrate into several ones plus a residual wave train when passing over a steplike potential.

• Received 16 October 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.65.053605