Optical analogue of relativistic Dirac solitons in binary waveguide arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how binary waveguide arrays with Kerr nonlinearity can simulate relativistic Dirac solitons, providing a classical platform to explore quantum nonlinear effects typically considered impossible in linear quantum field theory.

Contribution

The authors analytically derive Dirac soliton solutions in nonlinear optical waveguide arrays and show these can simulate relativistic quantum effects.

Findings

Analytical Dirac soliton solutions in waveguide arrays

Conversion of coupled-mode equations into nonlinear Dirac equation

Potential for classical simulation of quantum nonlinear phenomena

Abstract

We study analytically and numerically an optical analogue of Dirac solitons in binary waveguide arrays in presence of Kerr nonlinearity. Pseudo-relativistic soliton solutions of the coupled-mode equations describing dynamics in the array are analytically derived. We demonstrate that with the found soliton solutions, the coupled mode equations can be converted into the nonlinear relativistic 1D Dirac equation. This paves the way for using binary waveguide arrays as a classical simulator of quantum nonlinear effects arising from the Dirac equation, something that is thought to be impossible to achieve in conventional (i.e. linear) quantum field theory.