Bifurcation phenomena and multiple soliton-bound states in isotropic Kerr media

An analytical and numerical study of the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations that govern light propagation in isotropic Kerr materials reveals the existence of a novel class of bound vector solitary waves. These solutions are shown to bifurcate from circularly polarized solitons. For certain values of the wave parameters they represent stationary bound states of several linearly polarized solitons. These solitary waves may find application to optical communications where they have the potential to increase the bandwidth of transmission lines.