Modulational instability for a self-attractive two-component Bose--Einstein condensate

By means of the multiple-scale expansion method, the coupled nonlinear Schr?dinger equations without an explicit external potential are obtained in two-dimensional geometry for a self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensate composed of different hyperfine states. The modulational instability of two-component condensate is investigated by using a simple technique. Based on the discussion about two typical cases, the explicit expression of the growth rate for a purely growing modulational instability and the optimum stable conditions are given and analysed analytically. The results show that the modulational instability of this two-dimensional system is quite different from that in a one-dimensional system.