Lie symmetries and solitons in nonlinear systems with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities

Complex-valued neural-operator-assisted soliton identification

The numerical determination of solitary states is an important topic for such research areas as Bose-Einstein condensates, nonlinear optics, plasma physics, and so on. In this paper, we propose a data-driven approach for identifying solitons based on dynamical solutions of real-time differential equations. Our approach combines a machine-learning architecture called the complex-valued neural operator (CNO) with an energy-restricted gradient optimization. The CNO serves as a generalization of the traditional neural operator to the complex domain, and constructs a smooth mapping between the initial and final states; the energy-restricted optimization facilitates the search for solitons by constraining the energy space. We concretely demonstrate this approach on the quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with homogeneous and inhomogeneous nonlinearities. Our work offers an idea for data-driven effective modeling and studies of solitary waves in nonlinear physical systems.

Suppression of the critical collapse for one-dimensional solitons by saturable quintic nonlinear lattices

The stabilization of one-dimensional solitons by a nonlinear lattice against the critical collapse in the focusing quintic medium is a challenging issue. We demonstrate that this purpose can be achieved by combining a nonlinear lattice and saturation of the quintic nonlinearity. The system supports three species of solitons, namely, fundamental (even-parity) ones and dipole (odd-parity) modes of on- and off-site-centered types. Very narrow fundamental solitons are found in an approximate analytical form, and systematic results for very broad unstable and moderately broad partly stable solitons, including their existence and stability areas, are produced by means of numerical methods. Stability regions of the solitons are identified by means of systematic simulations. The stability of all the soliton species obeys the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion.

Solitons and their stability in the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation with PT-symmetric potentials

We report localized nonlinear modes of the self-focusing and defocusing nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation with the generalized PT-symmetric Scarf-II, Rosen-Morse, and periodic potentials. Parameter regions are presented for broken and unbroken PT-symmetric phases of linear bounded states and the linear stability of the obtained solitons. Moreover, we numerically explore the dynamical behaviors of solitons and find stable solitons for some given parameters.

Stable parity-time-symmetric nonlinear modes and excitations in a derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The effect of derivative nonlinearity and parity-time-symmetric (PT-symmetric) potentials on the wave propagation dynamics is explored in the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation, where the physically interesting Scarf-II and harmonic-Hermite-Gaussian potentials are chosen. We study numerically the regions of unbroken and broken linear PT-symmetric phases and find some stable bright solitons of this model in a wide range of potential parameters even though the corresponding linear PT-symmetric phases are broken. The semielastic interactions between particular bright solitons and exotic incident waves are illustrated such that we find that particular nonlinear modes almost keep their shapes after interactions even if the exotic incident waves have evidently been changed. Moreover, we exert the adiabatic switching on PT-symmetric potential parameters such that a stable nonlinear mode with the unbroken linear PT-symmetric phase can be excited to another stable nonlinear mode belonging to the broken linear PT-symmetric phase.

Dynamics of nonlinear waves in two-dimensional cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation with spatially modulated nonlinearities and potentials

We derive analytical solutions to the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation with potentials and nonlinearities depending on both propagation distance and transverse space. Among other, circle solitons and multi-peaked vortex solitons are found. These solitary waves propagate self-similarly and are characterized by three parameters, the modal numbers m and n, and the modulation depth of intensity. We find that the stable fundamental solitons with m = 0 and the low-order solitons with m = 1, n ≤ 2 can be supported with the energy eigenvalues E = 0 and E ≠ 0. However, higher-order solitons display unstable propagation over prolonged distances. The stability of solutions is examined by numerical simulations.

Quantum Dynamics with Spatiotemporal Control of Interactions in a Stable Bose-Einstein Condensate

Optical control of atomic interactions in quantum gases is a long-sought goal of cold atom research. Previous experiments have been hindered by rapid decay of the quantum gas and parasitic deformation of the trap potential. We develop and implement a generic scheme for optical control of Feshbach resonances which yields long quantum gas lifetimes and a negligible parasitic dipole force. We show that fast and local control of interactions leads to intriguing quantum dynamics in new regimes, highlighted by the formation of van der Waals molecules and localized collapse of a Bose condensate.

Spatial solitons and stability in self-focusing and defocusing Kerr nonlinear media with generalized parity-time-symmetric Scarff-II potentials

We present a unified theoretical study of the bright solitons governed by self-focusing and defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equations with generalized parity-time- (PT) symmetric Scarff-II potentials. Particularly, a PT-symmetric k-wave-number Scarff-II potential and a multiwell Scarff-II potential are considered, respectively. For the k-wave-number Scarff-II potential, the parameter space can be divided into different regions, corresponding to unbroken and broken PT symmetry and the bright solitons for self-focusing and defocusing Kerr nonlinearities. For the multiwell Scarff-II potential the bright solitons can be obtained by using a periodically space-modulated Kerr nonlinearity. The linear stability of bright solitons with PT-symmetric k-wave-number and multiwell Scarff-II potentials is analyzed in detail using numerical simulations. Stable and unstable bright solitons are found in both regions of unbroken and broken PT symmetry due to the existence of the nonlinearity. Furthermore, the bright solitons in three-dimensional self-focusing and defocusing NLS equations with a generalized PT-symmetric Scarff-II potential are explored. This may have potential applications in the field of optical information transmission and processing based on optical solitons in nonlinear dissipative but PT-symmetric systems.

Symmetries and exact solutions of a class of nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equations with self-induced parity-time-symmetric potential

A class of nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equations (NLSEs) is considered in an external potential with a space-time modulated coefficient of the nonlinear interaction term as well as confining and/or loss-gain terms. This is a generalization of a recently introduced integrable nonlocal NLSE with self-induced potential that is parity-time-symmetric in the corresponding stationary problem. Exact soliton solutions are obtained for the inhomogeneous and/or nonautonomous nonlocal NLSE by using similarity transformation, and the method is illustrated with a few examples. It is found that only those transformations are allowed for which the transformed spatial coordinate is odd under the parity transformation of the original one. It is shown that the nonlocal NLSE without the external potential and a (d+1)-dimensional generalization of it admits all the symmetries of the (d+1)-dimensional Schrödinger group. The conserved Noether charges associated with the time translation, dilatation, and special conformal transformation are shown to be real-valued in spite of being non-Hermitian. Finally, the dynamics of different moments are studied with an exact description of the time evolution of the "pseudowidth" of the wave packet for the special case in which the system admits a O(2,1) conformal symmetry.

Vector rogue waves and dark-bright boomeronic solitons in autonomous and nonautonomous settings

In this work we consider the dynamics of vector rogue waves and dark-bright solitons in two-component nonlinear Schrödinger equations with various physically motivated time-dependent nonlinearity coefficients, as well as spatiotemporally dependent potentials. A similarity transformation is utilized to convert the system into the integrable Manakov system and subsequently the vector rogue and dark-bright boomeronlike soliton solutions of the latter are converted back into ones of the original nonautonomous model. Using direct numerical simulations we find that, in most cases, the rogue wave formation is rapidly followed by a modulational instability that leads to the emergence of an expanding soliton train. Scenarios different than this generic phenomenology are also reported.

Controlling rogue waves in inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates

We present the exact rogue wave solutions of the quasi-one-dimensional inhomogeneous Gross-Pitaevskii equation by using similarity transformation. Then, by employing the exact analytical solutions we have studied the controllable behavior of rogue waves in the Bose-Einstein condensates context for the experimentally relevant systems. Additionally, we have also investigated the nonlinear tunneling of rogue waves through a conventional hyperbolic barrier and periodic barrier. We have found that, for the conventional nonlinearity barrier case, rogue waves are localized in space and time and get amplified near the barrier, while for the dispersion barrier case rogue waves are localized in space and propagating in time and their amplitude is reduced at the barrier location. In the case of the periodic barrier, the interesting dynamical features of rogue waves are obtained and analyzed analytically.

Polaritonic solitons in a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a soft optical lattice

We investigate the ground state (GS) of a collisionless Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a soft one-dimensional optical lattice (OL), which is formed by two counterpropagating optical beams perturbed by the BEC density profile through the local-field effect (LFE). We show that LFE gives rise to an envelope-deformation potential, a nonlocal potential resulting from the phase deformation, and an effective self-interaction of the condensate. As a result, stable photon-atomic (polaritonic) lattice solitons, including an optical component, in the form of the deformation of the soft OL, in a combination with a localized matter-wave component, are generated in the blue-detuned setting, without any direct interaction between atoms. These self-trapped modes, which realize the system's GS, are essentially different from the gap solitons supported by the interplay of the OL potential and collisional interactions between atoms. A transition to tightly bound modes from loosely bound ones occurs with the increase of the number of atoms in the BEC.

Complex PT-symmetric nonlinear Schrödinger equation and Burgers equation

The complex -symmetric nonlinear wave models have drawn much attention in recent years since the complex -symmetric extensions of the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation were presented in 2007. In this review, we focus on the study of the complex -symmetric nonlinear Schrödinger equation and Burgers equation. First of all, we briefly introduce the basic property of complex symmetry. We then report on exact solutions of one- and two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equations (known as the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in Bose-Einstein condensates) with several complex -symmetric potentials. Finally, some complex -symmetric extension principles are used to generate some complex -symmetric nonlinear wave equations starting from both -symmetric (e.g. the KdV equation) and non- -symmetric (e.g. the Burgers equation) nonlinear wave equations. In particular, we discuss exact solutions of some representative ones of the complex -symmetric Burgers equation in detail.

Different routes from a matter wavepacket to spatiotemporal chaos

We investigate the dynamics of a quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a double-well potential with spatiotemporally modulated interaction. A variety of phenomena is identified in different frequency regimes, including the self-compression, splitting, breathing-like, and near-fidelity of the matter wavepacket, which are associated with different routes for the onset of spatiotemporal chaos. The results also reveal that chaos can retain space-inversion symmetry of the system.

Wide localized solitons in systems with time- and space-modulated nonlinearities

In this work we apply point canonical transformations to solve some classes of nonautonomous, nonlinear Schrödinger equations, namely, those which possess specific cubic and quintic (time- and space-dependent) nonlinearities. In this way we generalize some procedures recently published which resort to an ansatz to the wave function and recover a time- and space-independent nonlinear equation which can be solved explicitly. The method applied here allows us to find wide localized (in space) soliton solutions to the nonautonomous, nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We also generalize the external potential which traps the system and the terms of the nonlinearities.

Stable bright and vortex solitons in photonic crystal fibers with inhomogeneous defocusing nonlinearity

We predict that a photonic crystal fiber whose strands are filled with a defocusing nonlinear medium can support stable bright solitons and also vortex solitons if the strength of the defocusing nonlinearity grows toward the periphery of the fiber. The domains of soliton existence depend on the transverse growth rate of the filling nonlinearity and nonlinearity of the core. Remarkably, solitons exist even when the core material is linear.

Matter-wave solutions in Bose-Einstein condensates with harmonic and Gaussian potentials

We study exact matter-wave solutions of the quasi-one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation with the space- and/or time-modulated potential and nonlinearity and the time-dependent gain or loss term in Bose-Einstein condensates. In particular, based on the similarity transformation and symbolic analysis, we report several families of exact solutions of the quasi-one-dimensional GP equation in the combination of the harmonic and Gaussian potentials, in which some physically relevant solutions are described. The stability of the obtained matter-wave solutions is addressed numerically such that some stable solutions are found. Moreover, we also analyze the parameter regimes for the stable solutions. These results may raise the possibility of relative experiments and potential applications.

Vortex solitons in defocusing media with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearity

The analytical two- and three-dimensional vortex solitons with arbitrary values of vorticity are constructed in the cubic defocusing media with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearity. The values of the nonlinearity coefficients are zero near the center and increase rapidly toward the periphery. In addition to the analytical ones, a number of vortex solitons are found numerically. It is shown that analytical vortex solitons are stable. Also, the stability region of the numerically constructed vortex solitons are given.

Stable two-dimensional solitons supported by radially inhomogeneous self-focusing nonlinearity

We demonstrate that modulation of the local strength of the cubic self-focusing (SF) nonlinearity in the two-dimensional geometry, in the form of a circle with contrast Δg of the SF coefficient relative to the ambient medium with a weaker nonlinearity, stabilizes a family of fundamental solitons against the critical collapse. The result is obtained in an analytical form, using the variational approximation and Vakhitov-Kolokolov stability criterion, and corroborated by numerical computations. For the small contrast, the stability interval of the soliton's norm scales as ΔN~Δg (the replacement of the circle by an annulus leads to a reduction of the stability region by perturbations breaking the axial symmetry). To further illustrate this mechanism, we demonstrate, in an exact form, the stabilization of one-dimensional solitons against the critical collapse under the action of a locally enhanced quintic SF nonlinearity.

Solitons supported by spatially inhomogeneous nonlinear losses

We uncover that, in contrast to the common belief, stable dissipative solitons exist in media with uniform gain in the presence of nonuniform cubic losses, whose local strength grows with coordinate η (in one dimension) faster than |η|. The spatially-inhomogeneous absorption also supports new types of solitons, that do not exist in uniform dissipative media. In particular, single-well absorption profiles give rise to spontaneous symmetry breaking of fundamental solitons in the presence of uniform focusing nonlinearity, while stable dipoles are supported by double-well absorption landscapes. Dipole solitons also feature symmetry breaking, but under defocusing nonlinearity.

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.

Solitary waves in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with Hermite-Gaussian modulation of the local nonlinearity

We demonstrate "hidden solvability" of the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation whose nonlinearity coefficient is spatially modulated by Hermite-Gaussian functions of different orders and the external potential is appropriately chosen. By means of an explicit transformation, this equation is reduced to the stationary version of the classical NLS equation, which makes it possible to use the bright and dark solitons of the latter equation to generate solitary-wave solutions in our model. Special kinds of explicit solutions, such as oscillating solitary waves, are analyzed in detail. The stability of these solutions is verified by means of direct integration of the underlying NLS equation. In particular, our analytical results suggest a way of controlling the dynamics of solitary waves by an appropriate spatial modulation of the nonlinearity strength in Bose-Einstein condensates, through the Feshbach resonance.

Transfer and scattering of wave packets by a nonlinear trap

In the framework of a one-dimensional model with a tightly localized self-attractive nonlinearity, we study the formation and transfer (dragging) of a trapped mode by "nonlinear tweezers," as well as the scattering of coherent linear wave packets on the stationary localized nonlinearity. The use of a nonlinear trap for dragging allows one to pick up and transfer the relevant structures without grabbing surrounding "radiation." A stability border for the dragged modes is identified by means of analytical estimates and systematic simulations. In the framework of the scattering problem, the shares of trapped, reflected, and transmitted wave fields are found. Quasi-Airy stationary modes with a divergent norm, which may be dragged by a nonlinear trap moving at a constant acceleration, are briefly considered too.

Bright solitons from defocusing nonlinearities

We report that defocusing cubic media with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearity, whose strength increases rapidly enough toward the periphery, can support stable bright localized modes. Such nonlinearity landscapes give rise to a variety of stable solitons in all three dimensions, including one-dimensional fundamental and multihump states, two-dimensional vortex solitons with arbitrarily high topological charges, and fundamental solitons in three dimensions. Solitons maintain their coherence in the state of motion, oscillating in the nonlinear potential as robust quasiparticles and colliding elastically. In addition to numerically found soliton families, particular solutions are found in an exact analytical form, and accurate approximations are developed for the entire families, including moving solitons.

Algebraic bright and vortex solitons in defocusing media

We demonstrate that spatially inhomogeneous defocusing nonlinear landscapes with the nonlinearity coefficient growing toward the periphery as (1+|r|(α)) support one- and two-dimensional fundamental and higher-order bright solitons, as well as vortex solitons, with algebraically decaying tails. The energy flow of the solitons converges as long as nonlinearity growth rate exceeds the dimensionality, i.e., α>D. Fundamental solitons are always stable, while multipoles and vortices are stable if the nonlinearity growth rate is large enough.

Analytical solitary-wave solutions of the generalized nonautonomous cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation with different external potentials

A large family of analytical solitary wave solutions to the generalized nonautonomous cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation with time- and space-dependent distributed coefficients and external potentials are obtained by using a similarity transformation technique. We use the cubic nonlinearity as an independent parameter function, where a simple procedure is established to obtain different classes of potentials and solutions. The solutions exist under certain conditions and impose constraints on the coefficients depicting dispersion, cubic and quintic nonlinearities, and gain (or loss). We investigate the space-quadratic potential, optical lattice potential, flying bird potential, and potential barrier (well). Some interesting periodic solitary wave solutions corresponding to these potentials are then studied. Also, properties of a few solutions and physical applications of interest to the field are discussed. Finally, the stability of the solitary wave solutions under slight disturbance of the constraint conditions and initial perturbation of white noise is discussed numerically; the results reveal that the solitary waves can propagate in a stable way under slight disturbance of the constraint conditions and the initial perturbation of white noise.

Exact soliton solutions and their stability control in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with spatiotemporally modulated nonlinearity

We put forward a generic transformation which helps to find exact soliton solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a spatiotemporal modulation of the nonlinearity and external potentials. As an example, we construct exact solitons for the defocusing nonlinearity and harmonic potential. When the soliton's eigenvalue is fixed, the number of exact solutions is determined by energy levels of the linear harmonic oscillator. In addition to the stable fundamental solitons, stable higher-order modes, describing array of dark solitons nested in a finite-width background, are constructed too. We also show how to control the instability domain of the nonstationary solitons.

Modulation of breathers in the three-dimensional nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii equation

In this paper we present analytical breather solutions of the three-dimensional nonlinear generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We use an Ansatz to reduce the three-dimensional equation with space- and time-dependent coefficients into a one-dimensional equation with constant coefficients. The key point is to show that both the space- and time-dependent coefficients of the nonlinear equation can contribute to modulate the breather excitations. We briefly discuss the experimental feasibility of the results in Bose-Einstein condensates.

Vector solitons in nonlinear lattices

We consider two-component solitons in a medium with a periodic modulation of the nonlinear coefficient. The modulation enables the existence of complex multihump vector states. In particular, vector solitons composed of dipole and fundamental or dipole and even double-hump components exist and may be stable. Families of unstable scalar solitons can be stabilized in the vectorial form, due to the coupling to a stable second component.

Exact solutions to three-dimensional generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equations with varying potential and nonlinearities

It is shown that using the similarity transformations, a set of three-dimensional p-q nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equations with inhomogeneous coefficients can be reduced to one-dimensional stationary NLS equation with constant or varying coefficients, thus allowing for obtaining exact localized and periodic wave solutions. In the suggested reduction the original coordinates in the (1+3) space are mapped into a set of one-parametric coordinate surfaces, whose parameter plays the role of the coordinate of the one-dimensional equation. We describe the algorithm of finding solutions and concentrate on power (linear and nonlinear) potentials presenting a number of case examples. Generalizations of the method are also discussed.

Light bullets in Bessel optical lattices with spatially modulated nonlinearity

We address the stability of light bullets supported by Bessel optical lattices with out-of-phase modulation of the linear and nonlinear refractive indices. We show that spatial modulation of the nonlinearity significantly modifies the shapes and stability domains of the light bullets. The addressed bullets can be stable, provided that the peak intensity does not exceed a critical value. We show that the width of the stability domain in terms of the propagation constant may be controlled by varying the nonlinearity modulation depth. In particular, we show that the maximum energy of the stable bullets grows with increasing nonlinearity modulation depth.

Soliton dynamics at an interface between a uniform medium and a nonlinear optical lattice

We study trapping and propagation of a matter-wave soliton through the interface between uniform medium and a nonlinear optical lattice. Different regimes for transmission of a broad and a narrow solitons are investigated. Reflections and transmissions of solitons are predicted as a function of the lattice phase. The existence of a threshold in the amplitude of the nonlinear optical lattice, separating the transmission and reflection regimes, is verified. The localized nonlinear surface state, corresponding to the soliton trapped by the interface, is found. Variational approach predictions are confirmed by numerical simulations for the original Gross-Pitaevskii equation with nonlinear periodic potentials.

Two-dimensional solitons in nonlinear lattices

We address the existence and stability of two-dimensional solitons in optical or matter-wave media, which are supported by purely nonlinear lattices in the form of a periodic array of cylinders with self-focusing nonlinearity, embedded into a linear material. We show that such lattices can stabilize two-dimensional solitons against collapse. We also found that stable multipoles and vortex solitons are also supported by nonlinear lattices, provided that the nonlinearity exhibits saturation.

Supersolitons: solitonic excitations in atomic soliton chains

We show that, by tuning interactions in nonintegrable vector nonlinear Schrödinger equations modeling Bose-Einstein condensates and other relevant physical systems, it is possible to achieve a regime of elastic particlelike collisions between solitons. This would allow one to construct a Newton's cradle with solitons and supersolitons: localized collective excitations in solitary-wave chains.

Power-dependent shaping of vortex solitons in optical lattices with spatially modulated nonlinear refractive index

We address vortex solitons supported by optical lattices featuring modulation of both the linear and nonlinear refractive indices. We find that when the modulation is out of phase the competition between both effects results in remarkable shape transformations of the solitons that profoundly affect their properties and stability. Nonlinear refractive index modulation is found to impose restrictions on the maximal power of off-site solitons, which are shown to be stable only below a maximum nonlinearity modulation depth.

Power dependent soliton location and stability in complex photonic structures

The presence of spatial inhomogeneity in a nonlinear medium results in the breaking of the translational invariance of the underlying propagation equation. As a result traveling wave soliton solutions do not exist in general for such systems, while stationary solitons are located in fixed positions with respect to the inhomogeneous spatial structure. In simple photonic structures with monochromatic modulation of the linear refractive index, soliton position and stability do not depend on the characteristics of the soliton such as power, width and propagation constant. In this work, we show that for more complex photonic structures where either one of the refractive indices (linear or nonlinear) is modulated by more than one wavenumbers, or both of them are modulated, soliton position and stability depends strongly on its characteristics. The latter results in additional functionality related to soliton discrimination in such structures. The respective power (or width/propagation constant) dependent bifurcations are studied in terms of a Melnikov-type theory. The latter is used for the determination of the specific positions, with respect to the spatial structure, where solitons can be located. A wide variety of cases are studied, including solitons in periodic and quasiperiodic lattices where both the linear and the nonlinear refractive index are spatially modulated. The investigation of a wide variety of inhomogeneities provides physical insight for the design of a spatial structure and the control of the position and stability of a localized wave.

Soliton modes, stability, and drift in optical lattices with spatially modulated nonlinearity

We put forward new properties of lattice solitons in materials and geometries where both the linear refractive index and the nonlinearity are spatially modulated. We show that the interplay between linear and out-of-phase nonlinear refractive index modulations results in new soliton properties, including modifications of the soliton stability and transverse mobility, as well as shape transformations that may be controlled, e.g., by varying the light intensity.

Propagation of solitons in thermal media with periodic nonlinearity

We address the existence and properties of solitons in layered thermal media made of alternating focusing and defocusing layers. Such structures support robust bright solitons even if the averaged nonlinearity is defocusing. We show that nonoscillating solitons may form in any of the focusing domains, even in those located close to the sample edge, in contrast to uniform thermal media, where light beams always oscillate when not launched exactly on the sample center. Stable multipole solitons may include more than four spots in layered media.

Localized nonlinear waves in systems with time- and space-modulated nonlinearities

Using similarity transformations we construct explicit nontrivial solutions of nonlinear Schrödinger equations with potentials and nonlinearities depending both on time and on the spatial coordinates. We present the general theory and use it to calculate explicitly nontrivial solutions such as periodic (breathers), resonant, or quasiperiodically oscillating solitons. Some implications to the field of matter waves are also discussed.

Generalized neighbor-interaction models induced by nonlinear lattices

It is shown that the tight-binding approximation of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a periodic linear potential and periodic in space nonlinearity coefficient gives rise to a number of nonlinear lattices with complex, both linear and nonlinear, neighbor interactions. The obtained lattices present nonstandard possibilities, among which we mention a quasilinear regime, where the pulse dynamics obeys essentially the linear Schrödinger equation. We analyze the properties of such models both in connection to their modulational stability, as well as in regard to the existence and stability of their localized solitary wave solutions.