Taking into account both gain/loss and time-dependent atomic scattering length, this paper analytically derives an exact bright solitary wave in a cigar-shaped attractive condensate in the presence of an expulsive parabolic potential. Due to the balance of the scattering length and gain/loss, the bright solitary wave is shown to have constant amplitude. Especially, it is found that the bright solitary wave is accelerated by expulsive force, whose velocity can be modulated by changing the axial and transverse angular frequencies. The results are in good agreement with the experimental observations by Khaykovich et al (2002 Science 296 1290).
By developing a small amplitude soliton approximation method, we study analytically weak nonlinear excitations in cigar-shaped condensates with repulsive interatomic interaction under consideration of external perturbation potential. It is shown that matter wave solitons may exist and travel over a long distance without attenuation and change in shape by properly adjusting the strength of interatomic interaction to compensate for the effect of external perturbation potential.