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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Soliton refraction by an optical soliton gas

Pierre Suret1, Martin Dufour1, Giacomo Roberti2, Gennady El2, François Copie1, and Stéphane Randoux1,*

  • 1Université de Lille, CNRS, UMR 8523 - PhLAM - Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules, F-59 000 Lille, France
  • 2Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 8ST, United Kingdom

  • *stephane.randoux@univ-lille.fr
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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L042002 – Published 2 October, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L042002

Abstract

We report an optical fiber experiment in which we investigate the interaction between an individual soliton and a dense soliton gas. We evidence a refraction phenomenon where the tracer soliton experiences an effective velocity change due to its interaction with the optical soliton gas. This interaction results in a significant spatial shift that is measured and compared with theoretical predictions obtained via the inverse scattering transform theory. The effective velocity change associated with the refraction phenomenon is found to be in good quantitative agreement with the results of the spectral kinetic theory of soliton gas. Our results validate the collision rate ansatz that plays a fundamental role in the kinetic theory of soliton gas and also is at the heart of generalized hydrodynamics of many-body integrable systems.

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L042002– Published 2 October, 2023
  • Received 24 March 2023
  • Accepted 22 July 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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