Observation of Linear and Nonlinear Light Localization at the Edges of Moiré Arrays.

We observe linear and nonlinear light localization at the edges and in the corners of truncated moiré arrays created by the superposition of periodic mutually twisted at Pythagorean angles square sublattices. Experimentally exciting corner linear modes in the femtosecond-laser written moiré arrays we find drastic differences in their localization properties in comparison with the bulk excitations. We also address the impact of nonlinearity on the corner and bulk modes and experimentally observe the crossover from linear quasilocalized states to the surface solitons emerging at the higher input powers. Our results constitute the first experimental demonstration of localization phenomena induced by truncation of periodic moiré structures in photonic systems.

Bragg solitons in topological Floquet insulators.

We consider a topological Floquet insulator consisting of two honeycomb arrays of identical waveguides having opposite helicities. The interface between the arrays supports two distinct topological edge states, which can be resonantly coupled by additional weak longitudinal refractive index modulation with a period larger than the helix period. In the presence of Kerr nonlinearity, such coupled edge states enable topological Bragg solitons. Theory and examples of such solitons are presented.

Unidirectional invisibility and enhanced reflection of short pulses in quasi-PT-symmetric media.

We consider the interaction of a short optical pulse with a layer with periodically modulated permittivity and a periodic gain-and-loss landscape. It is found that if the medium is quasi-parity-time (PT)-symmetric in the vicinity of the exceptional point, the propagation manifests strong unidirectional reflection and invisibility. Due to strong frequency selectivity, quasi-PT-symmetric periodic layers manifest efficient filtering of back-radiation.

Solitons in Inhomogeneous Gauge Potentials: Integrable and Nonintegrable Dynamics.

We introduce an exactly integrable nonlinear model describing the dynamics of spinor solitons in space-dependent matrix gauge potentials of rather general types. The model is shown to be gauge equivalent to the integrable system of vector nonlinear Schrödinger equations known as the Manakov model. As an example we consider a self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensate with random spin-orbit coupling (SOC). If Zeeman splitting is also included, the system becomes nonintegrable. We illustrate this by considering the random walk of a soliton in a disordered SOC landscape. While at zero Zeeman splitting the soliton moves without scattering along linear trajectories in the random SOC landscape; at nonzero splitting it exhibits strong scattering by the SOC inhomogeneities. For a large Zeeman splitting, the integrability is restored. In this sense, the Zeeman splitting serves as a parameter controlling the crossover between two different integrable limits.

Nonlinearity-induced localization in a periodically driven semidiscrete system.

We demonstrate that nonlinearity plays a constructive role in supporting the robustness of dynamical localization in a system which is discrete in one dimension and continuous in the orthogonal one. In the linear regime, time-periodic modulation of the gradient strength along the discrete axis leads to the usual rapid spread of an initially confined wave packet. Addition of the cubic nonlinearity makes the dynamics drastically different, inducing robust localization of moving wave packets. Similar nonlinearity-induced effects are also produced in the presence of a combination of static and oscillating linear potentials. The predicted dynamical localization in the nonlinear medium can be realized in photonic lattices and Bose-Einstein condensates.

Dynamic Design of Spatial Patterns of Colloidal Suspensions.

We study the collective dynamics of colloidal suspensions in the presence of a time-dependent potential by means of dynamic density functional theory. We consider a nonlinear diffusion equation for the density and show that spatial patterns emerge from a sinusoidal external potential with a time-dependent wavelength. These patterns are characterized by a sinusoidal density with the average wavelength and a Bessel-function envelope with an induced wavelength that depends only on the amplitude of the temporal oscillations. As a generalization of this result, we propose a design strategy to obtain a family of spatial patterns using time-dependent potentials of practically arbitrary shape.

Bloch oscillations sustained by nonlinearity.

We demonstrate that nonlinearity may play a constructive role in supporting Bloch oscillations in a model which is discrete, in one dimension and continuous in the orthogonal one. The model can be experimentally realized in several fields of physics such as optics and Bose-Einstein condensates. We demonstrate that designing an optimal relation between the nonlinearity and the linear gradient strength provides extremely long-lived Bloch oscillations with little degradation. Such robust oscillations can be observed for a broad range of parameters and even for moderate nonlinearities and large enough values of linear potential. We also present an approximate analytical description of the wave packet's evolution featuring a hybrid Bloch oscillating wave-soliton behavior that excellently corresponds to the direct numerical simulations.

Dynamics of dipoles and vortices in nonlinearly coupled three-dimensional field oscillators.

The dynamics of a pair of harmonic oscillators represented by three-dimensional fields coupled with a repulsive cubic nonlinearity is investigated through direct simulations of the respective field equations and with the help of the finite-mode Galerkin approximation (GA), which represents the two interacting fields by a superposition of 3+3 harmonic-oscillator p-wave eigenfunctions with orbital and magnetic quantum numbers l=1 and m=1, 0, -1. The system can be implemented in binary Bose-Einstein condensates, demonstrating the potential of the atomic condensates to emulate various complex modes predicted by classical field theories. First, the GA very accurately predicts a broadly degenerate set of the system's ground states in the p-wave manifold, in the form of complexes built of a dipole coaxial with another dipole or vortex, as well as complexes built of mutually orthogonal dipoles. Next, pairs of noncoaxial vortices and/or dipoles, including pairs of mutually perpendicular vortices, develop remarkably stable dynamical regimes, which feature periodic exchange of the angular momentum and periodic switching between dipoles and vortices. For a moderately strong nonlinearity, simulations of the coupled-field equations agree very well with results produced by the GA, demonstrating that the dynamics is accurately spanned by the set of six modes limited to l=1.

Precession and nutation dynamics of nonlinearly coupled non-coaxial three-dimensional matter wave vortices.

Nonlinearity is the driving force for numerous important effects in nature typically showing transitions between different regimes, regular, chaotic or catastrophic behavior. Localized nonlinear modes have been the focus of intense research in areas such as fluid and gas dynamics, photonics, atomic and solid state physics etc. Due to the richness of the behavior of nonlinear systems and due to the severe numerical demands of accurate three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations presently only little knowledge is available on the dynamics of complex nonlinear modes in 3D. Here, we investigate the dynamics of 3D non-coaxial matter wave vortices that are trapped in a parabolic potential and interact via a repulsive nonlinearity. Our numerical simulations demonstrate the existence of an unexpected and fascinating nonlinear regime that starts immediately when the nonlinearity is switched-on and is characterized by a smooth dynamics representing torque-free precession with nutations. The reported motion is proven to be robust regarding various effects such as the number of particles, dissipation and trap deformations and thus should be observable in suitably designed experiments. Since our theoretical approach, i.e., coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations, is quite generic, we expect that the obtained novel dynamical behavior should also exist in other nonlinear systems.

Four-wave mixing in a parity-time (PT)-symmetric coupler.

Parity-time (PT) symmetry allows for implementing controllable matching conditions for the four-wave mixing in 1D coupled waveguides. Different types of the process involving energy transition between slow and fast modes are established. In the case of defocusing Kerr media, the degenerated four-wave mixing is studied in detail. It is shown that unbroken PT symmetry supports the process existing in the conservative limit and, at the same time, originates new types of matching conditions, which cannot exist in the conservative system. In the former case, a slow beam splits into two fast beams, with nearly conserved total power, while in the latter case, one slow beam and one fast beam are generated. In the last process, the energy of the input primary slow beam is not changed and growth of the energy of the generated slow beam varies due to gain and loss of the medium. The appreciable generation of the fifth mode, i.e., the effect of the secondary resonant interactions, is observed.

Coupled Airy breathers.

The dynamics of two component-coupled vectorial Airy beams is investigated. In the linear propagation regime, a complete analytic solution describes the breather-like propagation of two components that feature nondiffracting self-accelerating Airy behavior. The superposition of two beams with different input properties opens the possibility of designing more complex nondiffracting propagation scenarios. In the strongly nonlinear regime, the dynamics remain qualitatively robust as is revealed by direct numerical simulations. Because of the Kerr effect, the two beams emit solitonic breathers whose coupling period is compatible with the remaining Airy-like beams. The results of this study are relevant for the description of photonic and plasmonic beams that propagate in coupled planar waveguides, as well as for birefrigent or multiwavelength beams.

Families of stationary modes in complex potentials.

We show that a general class of complex asymmetric potentials of the form w2(x)-iw(x)(x), where w(x) is a real function, allows for the existence of one-parametric continuous families of the stationary nonlinear modes bifurcating from the linear spectrum and propagating in Kerr media. As an example, we introduce an asymmetric double-hump complex potential and show that it supports continuous families of stable nonlinear modes.

Stochastic parity-time-symmetric coupler.

We introduce a stochastic parity-time (PT)-symmetric coupler, which is based on dual-core waveguides with fluctuating parameters, such that the gain and the losses are exactly balanced in average. We consider different parametric regimes that correspond to the broken and unbroken PT symmetry, as well as to the exceptional point of the underlying deterministic system. We demonstrate that in all the cases the statistically averaged intensity of the field grows. This result holds for either linear or nonlinear coupler and is independent on the type of fluctuations.

Conservative and PT-symmetric compactons in waveguide networks.

Stable discrete compactons in interconnected three-line waveguide arrays are found in linear and nonlinear limits in conservative and in parity-time (PT)-symmetric models. The compactons result from the interference of the fields in the two lines of waveguides ensuring that the third (middle) line caries no energy. PT-symmetric compactons require not only the presence of gain and losses in the two lines of the waveguides but also complex coupling, i.e., gain and losses in the coupling between the lines carrying the energy and the third line with zero field. The obtained compactons can be stable and their branches can cross the branches of the dissipative solitons. Unusual bifurcations of branches of solitons from linear compactons are described.

Macroscopic Zeno effect and stationary flows in nonlinear waveguides with localized dissipation.

We theoretically demonstrate the possibility of observing the macroscopic Zeno effect for nonlinear waveguides with localized dissipation. We show the existence of stable stationary flows, which are balanced by losses in the dissipative domain. The macroscopic Zeno effect manifests itself in the nonmonotonic dependence of the stationary flow on the strength of the dissipation. In particular, we highlight the importance of the dissipation parameters in observing the phenomenon. Our results are applicable to a large variety of systems, including the condensates of atoms or quasiparticles and optical waveguides.

Discrete solitons in arrays of positive and negative index waveguides.

We report on existence and properties of discrete solitons in arrays of alternating waveguides with positive and negative refractive indices. When the nonlinearities of all waveguides are focusing, we found solitons only in the semi-infinite gaps. Finite gap solitons found for waveguides having nonlinearities of different types reveal the symmetry breaking in the Fourier space. It is found that there exist more than one soliton families bifurcating from the gap edges of the linear spectrum. The field distribution in such multichannel couplers reveals nonexponential decay and nonmonotonic dependence of the energy growth in the positive index waveguides on the strength of losses in the negative index waveguides.

Nonlinear modes in finite-dimensional PT-symmetric systems.

By rearrangements of waveguide arrays with gain and losses one can simulate transformations among parity-time (PT-) symmetric systems not affecting their pure real linear spectra. Subject to such transformations, however, the nonlinear properties of the systems undergo significant changes. On an example of an array of four waveguides described by the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation with dissipation and gain, we show that the equivalence of the underlying linear spectra does not imply similarity of the structure or stability of the nonlinear modes in the arrays. Even the existence of one-parametric families of nonlinear modes is not guaranteed by the PT symmetry of a newly obtained system. In addition, the stability is not directly related to the PT symmetry: stable nonlinear modes exist even when the spectrum of the linear array is not purely real. We use a graph representation of PT-symmetric networks allowing for a simple illustration of linearly equivalent networks and indicating their possible experimental design.

Two-dimensional superfluid flows in inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates.

We report an algorithm of constructing linear and nonlinear potentials in the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation subject to given boundary conditions, which allow for exact analytic solutions. The obtained solutions represent superfluid flows in inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates. The method is based on the combination of the similarity reduction of the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation to the one-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the latter allowing for exact solutions, with the conformal mapping of the given domain, where the flow is considered, to a half space. The stability of the obtained flows is addressed. A number of stable and physically relevant examples are described.

Zeno effect and switching of solitons in nonlinear couplers.

The Zeno effect is investigated for soliton type pulses in a nonlinear directional coupler with dissipation. The effect consists in increase of the coupler transparency with increase of the dissipative losses in one of the arms. It is shown that localized dissipation can lead to switching of solitons between the arms. Power losses accompanying the switching can be fully compensated by using a combination of dissipative and active (in particular, parity-time-symmetric) segments.

Modulational instability in a passive fiber cavity, revisited.

Modulation instability in a passive fiber cavity is revisited. We address the problem in the statement with a continuous-time Ikeda map, rather than in the mean-field limit. It is found that plane wave solutions are unstable for both normal and anomalous dispersion regimes of an optical fiber. The origin of the instability in the continuous-time Ikeda map is in the mode mixing introduced by the beam splitter. The obtained conditions for the instability were compared with ones known for the discrete-time Ikeda map, showing appreciable difference, which, however reduces in the mean-field limit.