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We obtained the full set of multiparameter vector beating soliton solutions for Manakov equations in both focusing and defocusing cases. Based on exact solutions, physical spectra of beating solitons are calculated analytically. It is found that the spectra of moving beating solitons are asymmetric relative to the sign change of the frequency. In contrast, the static beating solitons have symmetric spectra. We also study the second-order vector beating soliton solutions with either equal or unequal velocities. Numerical simulations confirmed the validity of our exact solutions.

We developed an exact theory of the superregular breathers (SRBs) of Manakov equations. We have shown that the vector SRBs do exist both in the cases of focusing and defocusing Manakov systems. The theory is based on the eigenvalue analysis and on finding the exact links between the SRBs and modulation instability. We have shown that in the focusing case the localized periodic initial modulation of the plane wave may excite both a single SRB and the second-order SRBs involving four fundamental breathers.

We present exact multiparameter families of soliton solutions for two- and three-component Manakov equations in the defocusing regime. Existence diagrams for such solutions in the space of parameters are presented. Fundamental soliton solutions exist only in finite areas on the plane of parameters. Within these areas, the solutions demonstrate rich spatiotemporal dynamics. The complexity increases in the case of three-component solutions. The fundamental solutions are dark solitons with complex oscillating patterns in the individual wave components. At the boundaries of existence, the solutions are transformed into plain (nonoscillating) vector dark solitons. The superposition of two dark solitons in the solution adds more frequencies in the patterns of oscillating dynamics. These solutions admit degeneracy when the eigenvalues of fundamental solitons in the superposition coincide.

Nonlinear waves become asymmetric when asymmetric physical effects are present within the system. One example is the self-steepening effect. When exactly balanced with dispersion, it leads to a fully integrable system governed by the Chen-Lee-Liu equation. The latter provides a natural basis for the analysis of asymmetric wave dynamics just as nonlinear Schrödinger or Korteweg-de Vries equations provide the basis for analyzing solitons with symmetric profile. In this work, we found periodic wave trains of the Chen-Lee-Liu equation evolved from fully developed modulation instability and analyzed a highly nontrivial spectral evolution of such waves in analytic form that shows strong asymmetry of its components. We present the conceptual basis for finding such spectra that can be used in analyzing asymmetric nonlinear waves in other systems.

We model Q-switched pulses in passively mode-locked lasers using the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). We show that a wide set of parameters of this equation leads to Q-switched pulses of triangular shape that consist of a periodic sequence of evolving dissipative solitons. Bifurcation diagrams demonstrating various transformations of these pulses are calculated in terms of five major parameters of the CGLE. The diagrams show period doubling transformations as well as the transition to a chaotic evolution of the Q-switched pulses.

The dynamics of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) recurrence in a Manakov system is studied analytically. Exact Akhmediev breather (AB) solutions for this system are found that cannot be reduced to the ABs of a single-component nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Expansion-contraction cycle of the corresponding spectra with an infinite number of sidebands is calculated analytically using a residue theorem. A distinctive feature of these spectra is the asymmetry between positive and negative spectral modes. A practically important consequence of the spectral asymmetry is a nearly complete energy transfer from the central mode to one of the lowest-order (left or right) sidebands. Numerical simulations started with modulation instability of plane waves confirm the findings based on the exact solutions. It is also shown that the full growth-decay cycle of the AB leads to the nonlinear phase shift between the initial and final states in both components of the Manakov system. This finding shows that the final state of the FPU recurrence described by the vector ABs is not quite the same as the initial state. Our results are applicable and can be observed in a wide range of two-component physical systems such as two-component waves in optical fibers, two-directional waves in crossing seas, and two-component Bose-Einstein condensates.

Concurrent passive mode-locked and self-Q-switched operation of laser devices is modeled using the complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation. Experimental observations use a passively mode-locked fiber ring laser with a waveguide array as a fast saturable absorber. The shape of each individual self-Q-switched pulse and the periodic trains of pairs of such pulses are in a good qualitative agreement with the numerical results.

The classical theory of modulation instability (MI) attributed to Bespalov-Talanov in optics and Benjamin-Feir for water waves is just a linear approximation of nonlinear effects and has limitations that have been corrected using the exact weakly nonlinear theory of wave propagation. We report results of experiments in both optics and hydrodynamics, which are in excellent agreement with nonlinear theory. These observations clearly demonstrate that MI has a wider band of unstable frequencies than predicted by the linear stability analysis. The range of areas where the nonlinear theory of MI can be applied is actually much larger than considered here., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

Using Levi-Cività's theory of ideal fluids, we derive the complex Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation, describing the complex velocity of a shallow fluid up to first order. We use perturbation theory, and the long wave, slowly varying velocity approximations for shallow water. The complex KdV equation describes the nontrivial dynamics of all water particles from the surface to the bottom of the water layer. A crucial step made in our work is the proof that a natural consequence of the complex KdV theory is that the wave elevation is described by the real KdV equation. The complex KdV approach in the theory of shallow fluids is thus more fundamental than the one based on the real KdV equation. We demonstrate how it allows direct calculation of the particle trajectories at any point of the fluid, and that these results agree well with numerical simulations of other authors.

We report the first, to the best of our knowledge, experimental observation of doubly periodic first-order solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation in optical fibers. We confirm, experimentally, the existence of A -type and B -type solutions. This is done by using the initial conditions that consist of a strong pump and two weak sidebands. The evolution of power and phase of the main spectral components is recorded using heterodyne time-domain reflectometry. Another important part of our experiment is active loss compensation. We reach a good agreement between theory and experiment.

We report the universal emergence of anomalous fundamental Peregrine solitons, which can exhibit an unprecedentedly ultrahigh peak amplitude comparable to any higher-order rogue wave events, in the vector derivative nonlinear Schrödinger system involving the self-steepening effect. We present the exact explicit rational solutions on either a continuous-wave or a periodical-wave background, for a broad range of parameters. We numerically confirm the buildup of anomalous Peregrine solitons from strong initial harmonic perturbations, despite the onset of competing modulation instability. Our results may stimulate the experimental study of such Peregrine soliton anomaly in birefringent crystals or other similar vector systems.

A family of super-regular (SR) breather solutions in systems with self-steepening effect and in the case of either normal or anomalous dispersion is derived analytically. Derivation is based on the Darboux transformation with a quadratic spectral parameter. In contrast to the SR breather solutions in t-symmetric systems such as the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the new breathers found in the present work evolve asymmetrically even if started from symmetric initial conditions. The initial stage of this process is modulation instability. Numerical simulations confirm the excitation of the SR breathers when started from the approximate initial conditions leading at first to modulation instability. Our results offer the possibility of experimental observations of SR breather dynamics in systems with self-steepening effects, such as optical frequency-doubling crystals or magnetized plasmas.

Q switching (QS) and mode locking (ML) are the two main techniques enabling generation of ultrashort pulses. Here, we report the first observation of pulse evolution and dynamics in the QS-ML transition stage, where the ML soliton formation evolves from the QS pulses instead of relaxation oscillations (or quasi-continuous-wave oscillations) reported in previous studies. We discover a new way of soliton buildup in an ultrafast laser, passing through four stages: initial spontaneous noise, QS, beating dynamics, and ML. We reveal that multiple subnanosecond pulses coexist within the laser cavity during the QS, with one dominant pulse transforming into a soliton when reaching the ML stage. We propose a theoretical model to simulate the spectrotemporal beating dynamics (a critical process of QS-ML transition) and the Kelly sidebands of the as-formed solitons. Numerical results show that beating dynamics is induced by the interference between a dominant pulse and multiple subordinate pulses with varying temporal delays, in agreement with experimental observations. Our results allow a better understanding of soliton formation in ultrafast lasers, which have widespread applications in science and technology.

We have found "bright and dark" solutions of the Gardner equation which can model internal rogue waves in three-layer fluids. We provide the first four "bright" and "dark" exact rational solutions to the Gardner equation. These are the lowest-order solutions of the corresponding hierarchies of rogue-wave solutions of this equation. They have been obtained from the rogue-wave solutions of a modified Korteweg-de Vries equation by using a Lorentz-type transformation. The maximal (and minimal) amplitudes and the background levels of these solutions for arbitrary order are deduced, based on the lowest-order examples. These solutions can be useful for explanations of extremely large amplitude internal waves in the ocean, as well as for abnormally large-amplitude waves in other areas of nonlinear physics, such as optics and dusty plasmas.

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 unidirectional 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, beam dynamics form. Spatiotemporal measurements of the water surface elevation are obtained by stereo-reconstructing the positions of the floating markers placed on a regular lattice and recorded with two synchronized high-speed cameras. Experimental results, based on the predictions obtained from the (2D + 1) hyperbolic NLSE equation, are in excellent agreement with the theory. Our study proves the existence of such unique and coherent wave packets and has serious implications for practical applications in optical sciences and physical oceanography. Moreover, unstable wave fields in this geometry may explain the formation of directional large-amplitude rogue waves with a finite crest length within a wide range of nonlinear dispersive media, such as Bose-Einstein condensates, solids, plasma, hydrodynamics, and optics., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

We present doubly periodic solutions of the infinitely extended nonlinear Schrödinger equation with an arbitrary number of higher-order terms and corresponding free real parameters. Solutions have one additional free variable parameter that allows one to vary periods along the two axes. The presence of infinitely many free parameters provides many possibilities in applying the solutions to nonlinear wave evolution. Being general, this solution admits several particular cases which are also given in this article.

The formation of rogue waves in shallow water is presented in this Rapid Communication by providing the three lowest-order exact rational solutions to the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation. They have been obtained from the modified KdV equation by using the complex Miura transformation. It is found that the amplitude amplification factor of such waves formed in shallow water is much larger than the amplitude amplification factor of those occurring in deep water. These solutions clearly demonstrate a potential hazard for coastal areas. They can also provide a solid mathematical basis for the existence of abnormally large-amplitude waves in other branches of nonlinear physics such as optics, unidirectional crystal growth, and in quantum mechanics.

We investigate the dynamics of modulation instability (MI) and the corresponding breather solutions to the extended nonlinear Schrödinger equation that describes the full scale growth-decay cycle of MI. As an example, we study modulation instability in connection with the fourth-order equation in detail. The higher-order equations have free parameters that can be used to control the growth-decay cycle of the MI; that is, the growth rate curves, the time of evolution, the maximal amplitude, and the spectral content of the Akhmediev Breather strongly depend on these coefficients.

Prigogine's ideas of systems far from equilibrium and self-organization (Prigogine & Lefever. 1968 J. Chem. Phys. 48 , 1695-1700 (doi:10.1063/1.1668896); Glansdorff & Prigogine. 1971 Thermodynamic theory of structures, stability and fluctuations New York, NY/London, UK: Wiley) deeply influenced physics, and soliton science in particular. These ideas allowed the notion of solitons to be extended from purely integrable cases to the concept of dissipative solitons. The latter are qualitatively different from the solitons in integrable and Hamiltonian systems. The variety in their forms is huge. In this paper, one recent example is considered-dissipative solitons with extreme spikes (DSESs). It was found that DSESs exist in large regions of the parameter space of the complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation. A continuous variation in any of its parameters results in a rich structure of bifurcations.This article is part of the theme issue 'Dissipative structures in matter out of equilibrium: from chemistry, photonics and biology (part 1)'., (© 2018 The Author(s).)

We present the infinite hierarchy of Sasa-Satsuma evolution equations. The corresponding Lax pairs are given, thus proving its integrability. The lowest order member of this hierarchy is the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, while the next one is the Sasa-Satsuma equation that includes third-order terms. Up to sixth-order terms of the hierarchy are given in explicit form, while the provided recurrence relation allows one to explicitly write all higher-order terms. The whole hierarchy can be combined into a single general equation. Each term in this equation contains a real independent coefficient that provides the possibility of adapting the equation to practical needs. A few examples of exact solutions of this general equation with an infinite number of terms are also given explicitly.

We present one- and two-breather solutions of the fourth-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation. With several parameters to play with, the solution may take a variety of forms. We consider most of these cases including the general form and limiting cases when the modulation frequencies are 0 or coincide. The zero-frequency limit produces a combination of breather-soliton structures on a constant background. The case of equal modulation frequencies produces a degenerate solution that requires a special technique for deriving. A zero-frequency limit of this degenerate solution produces a rational second-order rogue wave solution with a stretching factor involved. Taking, in addition, the zero limit of the stretching factor transforms the second-order rogue waves into a soliton. Adding a differential shift in the degenerate solution results in structural changes in the wave profile. Moreover, the zero-frequency limit of the degenerate solution with differential shift results in a rogue wave triplet. The zero limit of the stretching factor in this solution, in turn, transforms the triplet into a singlet plus a low-amplitude soliton on the background. A large value of the differential shift parameter converts the triplet into a pure singlet.

We present rogue wave solutions of the integrable nonlinear Schrödinger equation hierarchy with an infinite number of higher-order terms. The latter include higher-order dispersion and higher-order nonlinear terms. In particular, we derive the fundamental rogue wave solutions for all orders of the hierarchy, with exact expressions for velocities, phase, and "stretching factors" in the solutions. We also present several examples of exact solutions of second-order rogue waves, including rogue wave triplets.

Nonlinear externally driven optical cavities are known to generate periodic patterns. They grow from the linearly unstable background states due to modulation instability. These periodic solutions are also known as Kerr frequency combs, which have a variety of applications in metrology. The stationary state of periodic wave trains can be explained theoretically only in weakly nonlinear regimes near the onset of the instability using the order parameter description. However, in both weakly and strongly nonlinear dissipative regimes, only numerical solutions can be found. No analytic solutions are known so far except for the homogeneous continuous wave solution. Here, we derive an analytical expression for the intracavity fully nonlinear dissipative periodic wave train profiles that provides good agreement with the results of numerical simulations. Our approach is based on empirical knowledge of the triangular shape of the frequency comb spectrum.

We propose a negative curvature hollow-core fiber that has a nested elliptical element in the antiresonant tubes. The additional elliptical element effectively adds two curvatures, namely, a positive and a negative curvature. Our numerical study shows that it enhances the confinement of the light in the core. Moreover, the nested elements provided an extra degree of freedom that can be exploited to suppress higher-order modes through the change of the ellipticity. The resulting low confinement loss and single-mode guidance properties of the proposed fiber make it a suitable candidate for applications in ultrashort pulse delivery and gas-based nonlinear systems.

We present an investigation on the generation of supercontinuum in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral region. Namely, we study a silica-based anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has good guidance properties in the mid-IR filled with supercritical xenon providing the necessary high nonlinearity. Our numerical study shows that by launching a 200 nJ pump of 100 fs centered at 3.70 μm, a supercontinuum that spans from 1.85 to 5.20 μm can be generated. Such sources are potentially useful for applications, such as the remote sensing of various molecules, medical imaging diagnosis, and surgery.

Turbulence in integrable systems exhibits a noticeable scientific advantage: it can be expressed in terms of the nonlinear modes of these systems. Whether the majority of the excitations in the system are breathers or solitons defines the properties of the turbulent state. In the two extreme cases we can call such states "breather turbulence" or "soliton turbulence." The number of rogue waves, the probability density functions of the chaotic wave fields, and their physical spectra are all specific for each of these two situations. Understanding these extreme cases also helps in studies of mixed turbulent states when the wave field contains both solitons and breathers, thus revealing intermediate characteristics.

Instabilities are common phenomena frequently observed in nature, sometimes leading to unexpected catastrophes and disasters in seemingly normal conditions. One prominent form of instability in a distributed system is its response to a harmonic modulation. Such instability has special names in various branches of physics and is generally known as modulation instability (MI). The MI leads to a growth-decay cycle of unstable waves and is therefore related to Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) recurrence since breather solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) are known to accurately describe growth and decay of modulationally unstable waves in conservative systems. Here, we report theoretical, numerical and experimental evidence of the effect of dissipation on FPU cycles in a super wave tank, namely their shift in a determined order. In showing that ideal NLSE breather solutions can describe such dissipative nonlinear dynamics, our results may impact the interpretation of a wide range of new physics scenarios.

Turbulence in dynamical systems is one of the most intriguing phenomena of modern science. Integrable systems offer the possibility to understand, to some extent, turbulence. Recent numerical and experimental data suggest that the probability of the appearance of rogue waves in a chaotic wave state in such systems increases when the initial state is a random function of sufficiently high amplitude. We provide explanations for this effect.

We study the infinite integrable nonlinear Schrödinger equation hierarchy beyond the Lakshmanan-Porsezian-Daniel equation which is a particular (fourth-order) case of the hierarchy. In particular, we present the generalized Lax pair and generalized soliton solutions, plane wave solutions, Akhmediev breathers, Kuznetsov-Ma breathers, periodic solutions, and rogue wave solutions for this infinite-order hierarchy. We find that "even- order" equations in the set affect phase and "stretching factors" in the solutions, while "odd-order" equations affect the velocities. Hence odd-order equation solutions can be real functions, while even-order equation solutions are always complex.

We show, experimentally and numerically, that a mode-locked fiber laser can operate in a regime where two dissipative soliton solutions coexist and the laser will periodically switch between the solutions. The two dissipative solitons differ in their pulse energy and spectrum. The switching can be controlled by an external perturbation and triggered even when switching does not occur spontaneously. Numerical simulations unveil the importance of the double-minima loss spectrum and nonlinear gain to the switching dynamics.

We present an infinite nonlinear Schrödinger equation hierarchy of integrable equations, together with the recurrence relations defining it. To demonstrate integrability, we present the Lax pairs for the whole hierarchy, specify its Darboux transformations and provide several examples of solutions. These resulting wavefunctions are given in exact analytical form. We then show that the Lax pair and Darboux transformation formalisms still apply in this scheme when the coefficients in the hierarchy depend on the propagation variable (e.g., time). This extension thus allows for the construction of complicated solutions within a greatly diversified domain of generalised nonlinear systems.

We have found a strongly pulsating regime of dissipative solitons in the laser model described by the complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation. The pulse energy within each period of pulsations may change more than two orders of magnitude. The soliton spectra in this regime also experience large variations. Period doubling phenomena and chaotic behaviors are observed in the boundaries of existence of these pulsating solutions.

We have found new dissipative soliton in the laser model described by the complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation. The soliton periodically generates spikes with extreme amplitude and short duration. At certain range of the equation parameters, these extreme spikes appear in pairs of slightly unequal amplitude. The bifurcation diagram of spike amplitude versus dispersion parameter reveals the regions of both regular and chaotic evolution of the maximal amplitudes.

We analyze the quintic integrable equation of the nonlinear Schrödinger hierarchy that includes fifth-order dispersion with matching higher-order nonlinear terms. We show that a breather solution of this equation can be converted into a nonpulsating soliton solution on a background. We calculate the locus of the eigenvalues on the complex plane which convert breathers into solitons. This transformation does not have an analog in the standard nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We also study the interaction between the new type of solitons, as well as between breathers and these solitons.

We present breather solutions of the quintic integrable equation of the Schrödinger hierarchy. This equation has terms describing fifth-order dispersion and matching nonlinear terms. Using a Darboux transformation, we derive first-order and second-order breather solutions. These include first- and second-order rogue-wave solutions. To some extent, these solutions are analogous with the corresponding nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) solutions. However, the presence of a free parameter in the equation results in specific solutions that have no analogues in the NLSE case. We analyze new features of these solutions.

International Conference "Nonlinear Photonics-2014" took place in Barcelona, Spain on July 27-31, 2014. It was a part of the "Advanced Photonics Congress" which is becoming a traditional notable event in the world of photonics. The current focus issue of Optics Express contains contributions from the participants of the Conference and the Congress. The articles in this focus issue by no means represent the total number of the congress contributions (around 400). However, it demonstrates wide range of topics covered at the event. The next conference of this series is to be held in 2016 in Australia, which is the home of many researchers working in the field of photonics in general and nonlinear photonics in particular.

It seems to be self-evident that stable optical pulses cannot be considerably shorter than a single oscillation of the carrier field. From the mathematical point of view the solitary solutions of pulse propagation equations should loose stability or demonstrate some kind of singular behavior. Typically, an unphysical cusp develops at the soliton top, preventing the soliton from being too short. Consequently, the power spectrum of the limiting solution has a special behavior: the standard exponential decay is replaced by an algebraic one. We derive the shortest soliton and explicitly calculate its spectrum for the so-called short pulse equation. The latter applies to ultra-short solitons in transparent materials like fused silica that are relevant for optical fibers.

We report the first experimental observation of periodic breathers in water waves. One of them is Kuznetsov-Ma soliton and another one is Akhmediev breather. Each of them is a localized solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) on a constant background. The difference is in localization which is either in time or in space. The experiments conducted in a water wave flume show results that are in good agreement with the NLS theory. Basic features of the breathers that include the maximal amplitudes and spectra are consistent with the theoretical predictions., (© 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.)

We study the properties of the chaotic wave fields generated in the frame of the Sasa-Satsuma equation (SSE). Modulation instability results in a chaotic pattern of small-scale filaments with a free parameter-the propagation constant k. The average velocity of the filaments is approximately given by the group velocity calculated from the dispersion relation for the plane-wave solution. Remarkably, our results reveal the reason for the skewed profile of the exact SSE rogue-wave solutions, which was one of their distinctive unexplained features. We have also calculated the probability density functions for various values of the propagation constant k, showing that probability of appearance of rogue waves depends on k.

We present the fifth-order equation of the nonlinear Schrödinger hierarchy. This integrable partial differential equation contains fifth-order dispersion and nonlinear terms related to it. We present the Lax pair and use Darboux transformations to derive exact expressions for the most representative soliton solutions. This set includes two-soliton collisions and the degenerate case of the two-soliton solution, as well as beating structures composed of two or three solitons. Ultimately, the new quintic operator and the terms it adds to the standard nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) are found to primarily affect the velocity of solutions, with complicated flow-on effects. Furthermore, we present a new structure, composed of coincident equal-amplitude solitons, which cannot exist for the standard NLSE.

We derive exact and approximate localized solutions for the Manakov-type continuous and discrete equations. We establish the correspondence between the solutions of the coupled Ablowitz-Ladik equations and the solutions of the coupled higher-order Manakov equations.

The dynamics of surface gravity water waves can be described by the self-defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Recent observations of black solitons on the surface of water confirmed its validity for finite, below critical depth. The black soliton is a limiting case of a family of gray soliton solutions with finite amplitude depressions. Here, we report observations of gray solitons in water waves, thus, complementing our previous observations of black solitons.

We consider an extended nonlinear Schrödinger equation with higher-order odd (third order) and even (fourth order) terms with variable coefficients. The resulting equation has soliton solutions and approximate rogue wave solutions. We present these solutions up to second order. Moreover, specific constraints on the parameters of higher-order terms provide integrability of the resulting equation, providing a corresponding Lax pair. Particular cases of this equation are the Hirota and the Lakshmanan-Porsezian-Daniel equations. The resulting integrable equation admits exact rogue wave solutions. In particular cases, mentioned above, these solutions are reduced to the rogue wave solutions of the corresponding equations.

We show that exploding dissipative solitons can arise in a reaction-diffusion system for a range of parameters. As a function of a vorticity parameter, we observe a sequence of transitions from oscillatory localized states via meandering dissipative solitons to exploding dissipative solitons propagating in one direction for long times followed by the reverse cascade back to oscillatory localized states. While exploding dissipative solitons are known from the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equation, propagating exploding dissipative solitons appear to require for their existence a system of lower symmetry such as the reaction-diffusion model studied here.

We report the experimental observation of multi-bound-soliton solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) in the context of hydrodynamic surface gravity waves. Higher-order N-soliton solutions with N=2, 3 are studied in detail and shown to be associated with self-focusing in the wave group dynamics and the generation of a steep localized carrier wave underneath the group envelope. We also show that for larger input soliton numbers, the wave group experiences irreversible spectral broadening, which we refer to as a hydrodynamic supercontinuum by analogy with optics. This process is shown to be associated with the fission of the initial multisoliton into individual fundamental solitons due to higher-order nonlinear perturbations to the NLS. Numerical simulations using an extended NLS model described by the modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation, show excellent agreement with experiment and highlight the universal role that higher-order nonlinear perturbations to the NLS play in supercontinuum generation.

We present a systematic classification for higher-order rogue-wave solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, constructed as the nonlinear superposition of first-order breathers via the recursive Darboux transformation scheme. This hierarchy is subdivided into structures that exhibit varying degrees of radial symmetry, all arising from independent degrees of freedom associated with physical translations of component breathers. We reveal the general rules required to produce these fundamental patterns. Consequently, we are able to extrapolate the general shape for rogue-wave solutions beyond order 6, at which point accuracy limitations due to current standards of numerical generation become non-negligible. Furthermore, we indicate how a large set of irregular rogue-wave solutions can be produced by hybridizing these fundamental structures.

The rogue wave solutions (rational multibreathers) of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) are tested in numerical simulations of weakly nonlinear and fully nonlinear hydrodynamic equations. Only the lowest order solutions from 1 to 5 are considered. A higher accuracy of wave propagation in space is reached using the modified NLS equation, also known as the Dysthe equation. This numerical modeling allowed us to directly compare simulations with recent results of laboratory measurements in Chabchoub et al. [Phys. Rev. E 86, 056601 (2012)]. In order to achieve even higher physical accuracy, we employed fully nonlinear simulations of potential Euler equations. These simulations provided us with basic characteristics of long time evolution of rational solutions of the NLS equation in the case of near-breaking conditions. The analytic NLS solutions are found to describe the actual wave dynamics of steep waves reasonably well.

We present the first ever observation of dark solitons on the surface of water. It takes the form of an amplitude drop of the carrier wave which does not change shape in propagation. The shape and width of the soliton depend on the water depth, carrier frequency, and the amplitude of the background wave. The experimental data taken in a water tank show an excellent agreement with the theory. These results may improve our understanding of the nonlinear dynamics of water waves at finite depths.

It is now 23 years since the first Topical Meeting "Nonlinear Guided Wave Phenomena" (Houston, TX, February 2-4, 1989) has been organised by George Stegeman and Allan Boardman with support of the Optical Society of America. These series of the OSA conferences known as NLGW, continued under the name "Nonlinear Photonics" starting from 2007. The latest one, in Colorado Springs in June 17-21, 2012 has been a great success despite the fierce fires advancing around the city at the time of the conference. This Focus issue is a collection of several papers presented at the conference with extended content submitted to Optics Express. Although this collection is small in comparison to the total number of papers presented at the conference, it gives a flavor of the topics considered at the meeting. It is also worthy to mention here that the next meeting "Nonlinear Photonics" is planned to be held in Barcelona - one of the main European centers on this subject.