Stationary wave packets in the Kerr nonlinear media with imaginary harmonic potential and linear gain

The existence of stationary wave packets in the nonlinear Kerr media with an imaginary harmonic potential and a linear gain is investigated. By employing a variational approach the existence of stable bright solitons is shown for the case of a defocusing nonlinearity. In focusing nonlinear media, the bright solitons have been shown to be unstable. The predictions of variational approach are confirmed by numerical simulations of the full modified NLS equation. The predicted stationary localized wave packets can be observed in a quasi-one-dimensional BEC with an imaginary optical potential and atoms feeding.