Modeling soliton-potential interactions for the 1-D cubic NLS via an invariant-preserving finite-difference method

We consider the 1-D focusing cubic NLS with a smooth, spatially-dependent potential which decays rapidly as $x\to \pm \mathrm{\infty }$. As is well known, under sufficient regularity conditions, solutions of the cubic NLS with such a spatially-dependent potential conserve both mass and energy. Additionally, in the absence of a potential, the 1-D focusing cubic NLS admits boosted soliton solutions. Furthermore, in the presence of a potential, the interaction of the potential with boosted soliton solutions to the free case is of active interest in the literature, particularly with respect to the dependence of this soliton-potential interaction on the velocity of the incident soliton. We adapt a finite-difference scheme to the setting of a smooth, rapidly-decaying spatially-dependent potential and show that this adaptation preserves the appropriate mass and energy invariants. Additionally, we use this algorithm to model soliton-potential interactions at a variety of incident soliton velocities.