2024/09/27 by Ludovica Dieli, Dieli, Ludovica, Davide Pierangeli +5
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · #Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Optics (physics.optics) #Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.18738
openalex publication_date 2024/09/27 · openalex created_date 2024/10/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report the observation of a two-dimensional dam break flow of a photon fluid in a nonlinear optical crystal. By precisely shaping the amplitude and phase of the input wave, we investigate the transition from one-dimensional (1D) to two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear dynamics. We observe wave breaking in both transverse spatial dimensions with characteristic timescales determined by the aspect ratio of the input box-shaped field. The interaction of dispersive shock waves propagating in orthogonal directions gives rise to a 2D ensemble of solitons. Depending on the box size, we report the evidence of a dynamic phase characterized by a constant number of solitons, resembling a 1D solitons gas in integrable systems. We measure the statistical features of this gaseous-like phase. Our findings pave the way to the investigation of collective solitonic phenomena in two dimensions, demonstrating that the loss of integrability does not disrupt the dominant phenomenology.