2020/11/30 by Alexis Gomel, Amin Chabchoub, Maura Brunetti +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Bifurcation #Breather #Classical mechanics #Homoclinic orbit #Instability #Mechanics #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Nonlinear Schrödinger equation #Nonlinear Waves and Solitons #Nonlinear system #Phase space #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Rogue wave #Wave packet #nlin.PS #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.174501
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 174501 (2021) · 6 pages, 3 figures (main text); 8 pages, 8 figures (supplemental material)
arxiv created 2021/04/05 · openalex publication_date 2021/04/27 · arxiv updated 2021/05/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We introduce a dynamic stabilization scheme universally applicable to unidirectional nonlinear coherent waves. By abruptly changing the waveguiding properties, the breathing of wave packets subject to modulation instability can be stabilized as a result of the abrupt expansion a homoclinic orbit and its fall into an elliptic fixed point (center). We apply this concept to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation framework and show that an Akhmediev breather envelope, which is at the core of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou recurrence and extreme wave events, can be frozen into a steady periodic (dnoidal) wave by a suitable variation of a single external physical parameter. We experimentally demonstrate this general approach in the particular case of surface gravity water waves propagating in a wave flume with an abrupt bathymetry change. Our results highlight the influence of topography and waveguide properties on the lifetime of nonlinear waves and confirm the possibility to control them.