Effect of surface losses on soliton propagation in Josephson junctions

We have explored numerically the effects on soliton propagation of a third order damping term in the modified sine-Gordon equation. In Josephson tunnel junctions such a term corresponds physically to quasiparticle losses within the metal electrodes of the junction. We find that this loss term plays the dominant role in determining the shape and stability of the soliton at high velocity.