Dynamics of Dark Solitons in Elongated Bose-Einstein Condensates

We find two types of moving dark soliton textures in elongated condensates: nonstationary kinks and proper dark solitons. The latter have a flat notch region and we obtain the diagram of their dynamical stability. At finite temperatures the dynamically stable solitons decay due to the thermodynamic instability. We develop a theory of their dissipative dynamics and explain experimental data. © 2002 The American Physical Society