Spontaneous knotting of self-trapped waves

Anton S. Desyatnikov*, Daniel Buccoliero, Mark R. Dennis, Yuri S. Kivshar

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    26 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We describe theory and simulations of a spinning optical soliton whose propagation spontaneously excites knotted and linked optical vortices. The nonlinear phase of the self-trapped light beam breaks the wave front into a sequence of optical vortex loops around the soliton, which, through the soliton's orbital angular momentum and spatial twist, tangle on propagation to form links and knots. We anticipate similar spontaneous knot topology to be a universal feature of waves whose phase front is twisted and nonlinearly modulated, including superfluids and trapped matter waves.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number771
    JournalScientific Reports
    Volume2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Spontaneous knotting of self-trapped waves'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this