Tracking down localized modes in PT-symmetric Hamiltonians under the influence of a competing nonlinearity

Abstract: The relevance of parity and time reversal (PT)-symmetric structures in optical systems is known for sometime with the correspondence existing between the Schrodinger equation and the paraxial equation of diffraction where the time parameter represents the propagating distance and the refractive index acts as the complex potential. In this paper, we systematically analyze a normalized form of the nonlinear Schrodinger system with two new families of PT-symmetric potentials in the presence of competing nonlinearities. We generate a class of localized eigenmodes and carry out a linear stability analysis on the solutions. In particular, we find an interesting feature of bifurcation charaterized by the parameter of perturbative growth rate passing through zero where a transition to imaginary eigenvalues occurs.