N-soliton Interactions: Effects of Linear and Nonlinear Gain and Loss.

We analyze the dynamical behavior of the N-soliton train in the adiabatic approximation of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation perturbed simultaneously by linear and nonlinear gain/loss terms. We derive the corresponding perturbed complex Toda chain in the case of a combination of linear, cubic, and/or quintic terms. We show that the soliton interactions dynamics for this reduced PCTC model compares favorably to full numerical results of the original perturbed nonlinear Schrödinger equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]