Soliton gases are large ensembles of random solitons with distinct characteristics arising from integrable system dynamics. They have been widely studied in theory and experiments, and were observed in natural lagoons. However, it remains an open question whether they occur naturally in the open ocean. Nonlinear ocean states containing solitons have been observed in the literature, but the dominance of solitons over other wave components required for a soliton gas has not been demonstrated. Our study provides the first field evidence of soliton gas sea states in the deep ocean, measured in Taiwan waters. The soliton energy ratio derived from the nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) is used as a key parameter to quantify how close sea states are to soliton gases. We identify eleven measurements with extremely high soliton energy ratios. They are characterized by short-period waves with relatively small wave heights, accompanied by extreme steepness and Benjamin Feir Index (BFI) values. These states are exceptionally rare, representing only 0.054\% of our dataset. Since directional interference can artificially increase the estimated soliton energy ratio obtained from measured time series, we further apply a probabilistic directional filtering method to remove the directional interference. Three wave records from the Eluanbi station are found to retain high soliton energy ratios after the directional interference has been removed, confirming that they are indeed soliton gases.
We analyze shallow water wind waves in Currituck Sound, North Carolina and experimentally confirm, for the first time, the presence of $soliton$ $turbulence$ in ocean waves. Soliton turbulence is an exotic form of nonlinear wave motion where low frequency energy may also be viewed as a $dense$ $soliton$ $gas$, described theoretically by the soliton limit of the Korteweg-deVries (KdV) equation, a $completely$ $integrable$ $soliton$ $system$: Hence the phrase "soliton turbulence" is synonymous with "integrable soliton turbulence." For periodic/quasiperiodic boundary conditions the $ergodic$ $sol…
Although the Peregrine-type solutions of the nonlinear Schödinger equation have long been associated mainly with the infamous "rouge waves" on the surface of the ocean, they might have a much more interesting role in the oceanic depths; in this article we show that these solutions play an important role in the evolution of the intrathermocline eddies, also known as the "oceanic lenses". In particular, we show that the collapse of a lens is determined by the particular generalization of the Peregrine soliton -- so called exultons -- of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In addition, we introdu…
In this paper we consider soliton and breather gases for one dimensional integrable focusing Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (fNLS). We derive average densities and fluxes for such gases by studying the thermodynamic limit of the fNLS finite gap solutions. Thermodynamic limits of quasimomentum, quasienergy and their connections with the corresponding $g$-functions were also established. We then introduce the notion of periodic fNLS gases and calculate for them the average densities, fluxes and thermodynamic limits of meromorphic differentials. Certain accuracy estimates of the obtained results …
Ocean waves are complex and often turbulent. While most ocean wave interactions are essentially linear, sometimes two or more waves interact in a nonlinear way. For example, two or more waves can interact and yield waves that are much taller than the sum of the original wave heights. Most of these nonlinear interactions look like an X or a Y or two connected Ys; at other times, several lines appear on each side of the interaction region. It was thought that such nonlinear interactions are rare events: they are not. Here we report that such nonlinear interactions occur every day, close to low t…
Solitons and breathers are localized solutions of integrable systems that can be viewed as "particles'' of complex statistical objects called soliton and breather gases. In view of the growing evidence of their ubiquity in fluids and nonlinear optical media these "integrable'' gases present fundamental interest for nonlinear physics. We develop analytical theory of breather and soliton gases by considering a special, thermodynamic type limit of the wavenumber-frequency relations for multi-phase (finite-gap) solutions of the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This limit is defined by the …
It is shown here that in neutral ion gases the thermal energy transport can occur in the form of new types of thermal soliton waves. The solitons can form under a vanishing net heating function, and for a quadratic net heating. It is predicted that these solitons play an important role in a diversity of terrestrial and astrophysical phenomena. We claim that the reported soliton waves can be observed under ordinary laboratory conditions.
The theory of soliton gas had been previously developed for unidirectional integrable dispersive hydrodynamics in which the soliton gas properties are determined by the overtaking elastic pairwise interactions between solitons. In this paper, we extend this theory to soliton gases in bidirectional integrable Eulerian systems where both head-on and overtaking collisions of solitons take place. We distinguish between two qualitatively different types of bidirectional soliton gases: isotropic gases, in which the position shifts accompanying the head-on and overtaking soliton collisions have the s…
The dynamics of nonlinear waves with controllable dispersion, nonlinearities, and background continues to be an exciting line of research in recent years. In this work, we focus to investigate an integrable (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear model describing the evolution of {water waves} with higher-order temporal dispersion by characterizing the dynamics of lump and soliton waves on different spatially-varying backgrounds. We construct explicit lump wave and kink-soliton solutions for the considered model through its trilinear and bilinear equations with appropriate forms of the polynomial and expo…
We prove existence, uniqueness and non-negativity of solutions of certain integral equations describing the density of states $u(z)$ in the spectral theory of soliton gases for the one dimensional integrable focusing Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (fNLS) and for the Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equation. Our proofs are based on ideas and methods of potential theory. In particular, we show that the minimizing (positive) measure for certain energy functional is absolutely continuous and its density $u(z)\geq 0$ solves the required integral equation. In a similar fashion we show that $v(z)$, the tempo…
We experimentally study universal nonequilibrium dynamics of two-dimensional atomic Bose gases quenched from repulsive to attractive interactions. We observe the manifestation of modulational instability that, instead of causing collapse, fragments a large two-dimensional superfluid into multiple wave packets universally around a threshold atom number necessary for the formation of Townes solitons. We confirm that the density distributions of quench-induced solitary waves are in excellent agreement with the stationary Townes profiles. Furthermore, our density measurements in the space and time…
We propose a general method to derive kinetic equations for dense soliton gases in physical systems described by integrable nonlinear wave equations. The kinetic equation describes evolution of the spectral distribution function of solitons due to soliton-soliton collisions. Owing to complete integrability of the soliton equations, only pairwise soliton interactions contribute to the solution and the evolution reduces to a transport of the eigenvalues of the associated spectral problem with the corresponding soliton velocities modified by the collisions. The proposed general procedure of the d…
We analyse the detail of interactions of two-dimensional solitary waves called lumps and one-dimensional line solitons within the framework of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation describing wave processes in media with positive dispersion. We show that line solitons can emit or absorb lumps or periodic chains of lumps; they can interact with each other by means of lumps. Within a certain time interval, lumps or lump chains can emerge between two line solitons and disappear then due to absorption by one of the solitons. This phenomenon resembles the appearance of rogue waves in the oceans. The …
We consider a one-dimensional trapped spin-1 Bose gas and numerically explore families of its solitonic solutions, namely antidark-dark-antidark (ADDAD), as well as dark-antidark-dark (DADD) solitary waves. Their existence and stability properties are systematically investigated within the experimentally accessible easy-plane ferromagnetic phase by means of a continuation over the atom number as well as the quadratic Zeeman energy. It is found that ADDADs are substantially more dynamically robust than DADDs. The latter are typically unstable within the examined parameter range. The dynamical e…
An Open-Source Pseudo-Spectral Solver for Idealized Korteweg-de Vries Soliton Simulations
Bandung Institute of Technology（万隆理工学院）；University of California, Riverside（加州大学河滨分校）；Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship 2.0（罗宁独立学术研究所 2.0）；State University of New York, Binghamton（纽约州立大学宾汉姆顿分校）
Soliton gases represent large random soliton ensembles in physical systems that display integrable dynamics at the leading order. Despite significant theoretical developments and observational evidence of ubiquity of soliton gases in fluids and optical media their controlled experimental realization has been missing. We report the first controlled synthesis of a dense soliton gas in deep-water surface gravity waves using the tools of nonlinear spectral theory (inverse scattering transform (IST)) for the one-dional focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The soliton gas is experimentally gener…
We review the study of rogue waves and related instabilities in optical and oceanic environments, with particular focus on recent experimental developments. In optics, we emphasize results arising from the use of real-time measurement techniques, whilst in oceanography we consider insights obtained from analysis of real-world ocean wave data and controlled experiments in wave tanks. Although significant progress in understanding rogue waves has been made based on an analogy between wave dynamics in optics and hydrodynamics, these comparisons have predominantly focused on one-dimensional nonlin…
In this paper, we present the first laboratory experiments that show the generation of internal solitary waves by the impingement of a quasi-two-dimensional internal wave beam on a pycnocline. These experiments were inspired by observations of internal solitary waves in the deep ocean from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, where this so-called mechanism of 'local generation' was argued to be at work, here in the form of internal tidal beams hitting the thermocline. Nonlinear processes involved here are found to be of two kinds. First, we observe the generation of a mean flow and higher h…
Although extreme or freak waves are repeatedly measured in the oceans, their origin is largely unknown. The interaction of different water waves is seen as one reason for their emergence. One way to consider nonlinear waves in deep water is to look at solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which plays an important role in the determination of extreme waves. One specific solution is the soliton solution. Therefore the question arises, how nonlinear waves behave as they interact or collide. Using a relaxation pseudo spectral scheme for the computation of solutions of the nonlinear Schr…
The propagation of surface water waves interacting with a current and an uneven bottom is studied. Such a situation is typical for ocean waves where the winds generate currents in the top layer of the ocean. The role of the bottom topography is taken into account since it also influences the local wave and current patterns. Specific scaling of the variables is selected which leads to approximations of Boussinesq and KdV types. The arising KdV equation with variable coefficients, dependent on the bottom topography, is studied numerically when the initial condition is in the form of the one soli…
An experimental procedure for studying soliton gases in shallow water is devised. Nonlinear waves propagate at constant depth in a 34\,m-long wave flume. At one end of the flume, the waves are generated by a piston-type wave-maker. The opposite end is a vertical wall. Wave interactions are recorded with a video system using seven side-looking cameras with a pixel resolution of 1\,mm, covering 14\,m of the flume. The accuracy in the detection of the water surface elevation is shown to be better than 0.1 mm. A continuous monochromatic forcing can lead to a random state such as a soliton gas. The…
Ultracold gases provide an unprecedented level of control for the investigation of soliton dynamics and collisions. We present a scheme for deterministically preparing pairs of three-component solitons in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Our method is based on local spin rotations which simultaneously imprint suitable phase and density distributions. This enables us to observe striking collisional properties of the vector degree of freedom which naturally arises for the coherent nature of the emerging multi-component solitons. We find that the solitonic properties in the quasi-one-dimensional syste…
Most experimental observations of solitons are limited to one-dimensional (1D) situations, where they are naturally stable. For instance, in 1D cold Bose gases, they exist for any attractive interaction strength $g$ and particle number $N$. By contrast, in two dimensions, solitons appear only for discrete values of $gN$, the so-called Townes soliton being the most celebrated example. Here, we use a two-component Bose gas to prepare deterministically such a soliton: Starting from a uniform bath of atoms in a given internal state, we imprint the soliton wave function using an optical transfer to…
The recent experimental realization of spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atomic gases opens a new avenue for engineering solitons with internal spatial structures through tuning atomic band dispersions. However, the types of the resulting stripe solitons in a spin-1/2 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) have been limited to dark-dark or bright-bright with the same density profiles for different spins. Here we propose that general types of stripe solitons, including magnetic stripe (e.g., dark-bright) and localized stripe waves (neither bright nor dark), could be realized in a spin-1 BEC with widely…
Solitons and breathers are nonlinear modes that exist in a wide range of physical systems. They are fundamental solutions of a number of nonlinear wave evolution equations, including the uni-directional nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). We report the observation of slanted solitons and breathers propagating at an angle with respect to the direction of propagation of the wave field. As the coherence is diagonal, the scale in the crest direction becomes finite, consequently, a beam dynamics forms. Spatio-temporal measurements of the water surface elevation are obtained by stereo-reconstruct…
The investigation of dynamics of intense solitary wave groups of collinear surface waves is performed by means of numerical simulations of the Euler equations and laboratory experiments. The processes of solitary wave generation, reflection from a wall and collisions are considered. Steep solitary wave groups with characteristic steepness up to $kA_{cr} = 0.3$ (where $k$ is the dominant wavenumber, and $A_{cr}$ is the crest amplitude) are concerned. They approximately restore the structure after all the considered interactions. In the course of the interaction with the wall and collisions the …
We study two-dimensional (2D) solitons in the mean-field models of ultracold gases with long-range quadrupole-quadrupole interaction (QQI) between particles. The condensate is loaded into a deep optical-lattice (OL) potential, therefore the model is based on the 2D discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation with contact onsite and long-range intersite interactions, which represent the QQI. The quadrupoles are built as pairs of electric dipoles and anti-dipoles orientated perpendicular to the 2D plane to which the gas is confined. Because the quadrupoles interact with the local gradient of the ext…
Exact Charge, Current, and Velocity Fields of Interacting Korteweg-de Vries Solitons
CY Cergy Paris Université（塞吉-蓬图瓦兹CY巴黎大学）；Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 8523, PhLAM – Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules（里尔大学，法国国家科学研究中心，UMR 8523，激光、原子和分子物理学实验室）
Spontaneous symmetry breaking and formation of self-organized structures in nonlinear systems are intriguing and important phenomena in nature. Advancing such research to new nonlinear optical regimes is of much interest for both fundamental physics and practical applications. Here we propose a scheme to realize optical pattern formation in a cold Rydberg atomic gas via electromagnetically induced transparency. We show that, by coupling two Rydberg states with a microwave field (microwave dressing), the nonlocal Kerr nonlinearity of the Rydberg gas can be enhanced significantly and may be tune…
Extreme (Rogue) Waves: From Theory to Experiments in Ultracold Gases and Beyond
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology（冲绳科学技术大学院大学）；Washington State University（华盛顿州立大学）；University of Massachusetts Amherst（马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校）；Missouri University of Science and Technology（密苏里科技大学）；University of San Diego（圣迭戈大学）
We have very little experience of the quantum dynamics of the ubiquitous nonlinear waves. Observed phenomena in high energy physics are perturbations to linear waves, and classical nonlinear waves, like solitons, are barely affected by quantum effects. We know that solitons, immutable in classical physics, exhibit collapse and revivals according to quantum mechanics. However this effect is very weak and has never been observed experimentally. By predicting black hole evaporation Hawking first introduced a distinctly quantum effect in nonlinear gravitational physics.Here we show the existence o…
