# Variational approach to study soliton dynamics in a passive fiber loop resonator with coherently driven phase-modulated external field

## TL;DR

This paper develops a semi-analytical variational method to analyze the dynamics and interactions of cavity solitons in a phase-modulated driven fiber resonator, aligning well with numerical simulations.

## Contribution

It introduces a variational framework to predict soliton behavior and interactions in a phase-modulated Kerr resonator, extending understanding of complex pulse dynamics.

## Key findings

- Analytical expressions for soliton trajectory, drift, and phase shift.
- Prediction of soliton interaction outcomes like attraction, repulsion, merging, and annihilation.
- Agreement between variational predictions and numerical simulations.

## Abstract

We report a detailed semi-analytical treatment to investigate the dynamics of a single cavity soliton (CS) and two co-propagating CSs separately in a Kerr mediated passive optical fiber resonator which is driven by a phase-modulated pump. The perturbation is dealt with by introducing a Rayleigh's dissipation function in the framework of variational principle that results in a set of coupled ordinary differential equations describing the evolution of individual soliton parameters. We further derive closed-form expressions for quick estimation of the temporal trajectory, drift velocity and the phase shift accumulated by the CS due to the externally modulated pump. We also extend the variational approach to solve two solitons interaction problem in the absence as well as in the presence of the externally modulated field. In absence of phase modulated field, the two copropagating solitons can attract, repulse or can propagate independently depending on their initial delay. The final state of interaction can be predicted through a second-order differential equation which is derived by the variational method. While in presence of the phase modulated field, the two solitons interaction can result in annihilation, merging, breathing or two soliton state depending on the detuning frequency and the pump power. Variational treatment analytically predicts these states and portrays the related dynamics that agrees with full numerical simulation carried out by solving the normalized Lugiato-Lefever equation. The results obtained through this variational approach will enrich the understanding of complex pulse dynamics under phase modulated driving field in passive dissipative systems.