Dissipative light bullets in Kerr cavities: multi-stability, clustering, and rogue waves

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence and stability of dissipative light bullets in Kerr cavities, explores their clustering behavior, and analyzes the emergence of rogue waves as extreme events in the system.

Contribution

It introduces stable 3D dissipative light bullets in Kerr cavities, analyzes their bifurcation structure, and links increased injection strength to rogue wave formation.

Findings

Stable 3D light bullets can form in Kerr cavities.

Clustering of light bullets leads to complex 3D patterns.

Increased injection strength causes rogue wave events.

Abstract

We report the existence of stable dissipative light bullets in Kerr cavities. These three-dimensional (3D) localized structures consist of either an isolated light bullet (LB), or could occur in clusters forming well-defined 3D patterns. They can be seen as stationary states in the reference frame moving with the group velocity of light within the cavity. The number of LBs and their distribution in 3D settings are determined by the initial conditions while their maximum peak power remains constant for a fixed value of the system parameters. Their bifurcation diagram allows us to explain this phenomenon as a manifestation of homoclinic snaking for dissipative light bullets. However, when the strength of the injected beam is increased, LBs lose their stability and the cavity field exhibits giant, short living three-dimensional pulses. The statistical characterization of pulse amplitude reveals a long tail probability distribution indicating the occurrence of extreme events; often called rogue waves.