In the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii mean field approach, it is shown that the supersonic flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate can support a new type of pattern—an oblique dark soliton. The corresponding exact solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation is obtained. It is demonstrated by numerical simulations that oblique solitons can be generated by an obstacle inserted into the flow.

The theory of optical dispersive shocks generated in the propagation of light beams through photorefractive media is developed. A full one-dimensional analytical theory based on the Whitham modulation approach is given for the simplest case of a sharp steplike initial discontinuity in a beam with one-dimensional striplike geometry. This approach is confirmed by numerical simulations, which are extended also to beams with cylindrical symmetry. The theory explains recent experiments where such dispersive shock waves have been observed.

We consider formation of dissipationless shock waves in Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interaction between atoms. It is shown that for big enough initial inhomogeneity of density, interplay of nonlinear and dispersion effects leads to wave breaking phenomenon followed by generation of a train of dark solitons. Analytical theory is confirmed by numerical simulations.

The theory of nonlinear diffraction of intensive light beams propagating through photorefractive media is developed. Diffraction occurs on a reflecting wire embedded in the nonlinear medium at a relatively small angle with respect to the direction of the beam propagation. It is shown that this process is analogous to the generation of waves by a flow of a superfluid past an obstacle. The “equation of state” of such a superfluid is determined by the nonlinear properties of the medium. On the basis of this hydrodynamic analogy, the notion of the “Mach number” is introduced where the transverse component of the wave vector plays the role of the fluid velocity. It is found that the Mach cone separates two regions of the diffraction pattern: inside the Mach cone oblique dark solitons are generated and outside the Mach cone the region of “optical ship waves” (the wave pattern formed by a two-dimensional packet of linear waves) is situated. Analytical theory of the “optical ship waves” is developed and two-dimensional dark soliton solutions of the generalized two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation describing the light beam propagation are found. Stability of dark solitons with respect to their decay into vortices is studied and it is shown that they are stable for large enough values of the Mach number.

We study three-dimensional vortex lattice structures in purely dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC). By using the mean-field approximation, we obtain a stability diagram for the vortex states in purely dipolar BECs as a function of harmonic trap aspect ratio ( λ ) and dipole–dipole interaction strength ( D ) under rotation. Rotating the condensate within the unstable region leads to collapse while in the stable region furnishes stable vortex lattices of dipolar BECs. We analyse stable vortex lattice structures by solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Gross–Pitaevskii equation in imaginary time. Further, the stability of vortex states is examined by evolution in real-time. We also investigate the distribution of vortices in a fully anisotropic trap by increasing eccentricity of the external trapping potential. We observe the breaking up of the condensate in two parts with an equal number of vortices on each when the trap is sufficiently weak, and the rotation frequency is high.

We are pointing out relevant anisotropic effects, related to spatial separation and miscibility, due to dipole-dipole interactions in rotating binary dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates by considering symmetric (${}^{164}\mathrm{Dy}-{}^{162}\mathrm{Dy}$) and asymmetric (${}^{168}\mathrm{Er}-{}^{164}\mathrm{Dy}, {}^{164}\mathrm{Dy}-{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$) dipolar mixtures. The binary mixtures are kept in a strong pancake-shaped trap, with repulsive two-body interactions and fixed rotation, modeled by an effective two-dimensional coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The anisotropy of the dipolar interactions on miscibility and vortex-lattice structures is studied by tuning the dipole-dipole interaction (DDI) from repulsive to attractive by varying the dipole polarization angle. A clear spatial separation is verified in the densities for attractive DDI, when the inter- to intraspecies contact interaction ratio is larger than 1, being angular for symmetric mixtures and radial for asymmetric ones. The signature of hidden vortices is evidenced in the particular dipolar-symmetric case. Another relevant outcome is the observed mass-imbalance sensibility verified by the vortex-pattern binary distributions in symmetric and asymmetric-dipolar mixtures, which requires the use of a relation for nonhomogeneous mixtures to estimate the miscibility of two components.