Abstract
It is well-known that wavepackets launched in a nonlinear medium will, in general, become broadened and distorted as a result of the nonlinearity.1,2 Nevertheless, in certain circumstances it is possible to obtain stable propagating solutions to nonlinear equations (referred to as “solitons”). In general, analytic solutions of this type are known to exist only for a few selected equations with a single spatial degree of freedom. Solitons retain their identity in much the same way as the normal modes of a linear system; they even emerge unscathed after “colliding” with each other. The mathematical nature of the equations involved and their associated solitons is well-exemplified by the two cases of interest in the present paper, namely, the nonlinear Schroedinger and Korteweg de Vries equations. Their principal characteristics are summarized briefly in the Appendix.
Research supported by Solid State Sciences Division, RADC (AFSC) under Contract No. F19628-78-C-0089.
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Bendow, B., Yukon, S.P. (1979). Solitons in the Theory of Guided Lightwaves. In: Bendow, B., Mitra, S.S. (eds) Fiber Optics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3492-7_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3492-7_19
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