Moving Matter-Wave Solitons in Spin—Orbit Coupled Bose—Einstein Condensates*

We investigate the moving matter-wave solitons in spin—orbit coupled Bose—Einstein condensates (BECs) by a perturbation method. Starting with the one-dimensional Gross—Pitaevskii equations, we derive a new KdV-like equation to which an approximate solution is obtained by assuming weak Raman coupling and strong spin—orbit coupling. The derivation of the KdV-like equation may be useful to understand the properties of solitons excitation in spin—orbit coupled BECs. We find different types of moving solitons: dark—bright, bright—bright and dark—dark solitons. Interestingly, moving dark—dark soliton for attractive intra- and inter-species interactions is found, which depends on the Raman coupling. The amplitude and velocity of the moving solitons strongly depend on the Raman coupling and spin—orbit coupling.