This paper is concerned with the long-wavelength instabilities (infrared catastrophes) occurring in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). We examine the modulational instability in “cigar-shaped” (one-dimensional) attractive BECs and the transverse instability of dark solitons in “pancake” (two-dimensional) repulsive BECs. We suggest mechanisms, and give explicit estimates, on how to engineer the trapping conditions of the condensate to avoid such instabilities: the main result being that a tight enough trapping potential suppresses the instabilities present in the homogeneous limit. We compare the obtained estimates with numerical results and we highlight the relevant regimes of dynamical behavior.

• Received 20 February 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.70.023602