Stability of two-dimensional spatial solitons in nonlocal nonlinear media

We discuss the existence and stability of two-dimensional solitons in media with spatially nonlocal nonlinear response. We show that such systems, which include thermal nonlinearity and dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, may support a variety of stationary localized structures, including rotating dipole solitons. We also demonstrate that the stability of these structures critically depends on the spatial profile of the nonlocal response function.