Temporal boundary solitons and extreme super-thermal light statistics

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of temporal boundary solitons in nonlinear optics, which cause extreme intensity fluctuations and are characterized by a statistical theory highlighting their rarity and colossal fluctuations.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of temporal boundary solitons and develops a statistical framework to describe their rare, high-intensity fluctuation phenomena in nonlinear optical systems.

Findings

Temporal boundary solitons cause giant intensity fluctuations.

TBS are rare events with colossal normalized intensity autocorrelation.

The statistical theory predicts extreme super-thermal light statistics.

Abstract

We discover the formation of a temporal boundary soliton (TBS) in the close proximity of a temporal boundary, moving in a nonlinear optical medium, upon high-intensity pulse collision with the boundary. We show that the TBS excitation causes giant intensity fluctuations in reflection (transmission) from (through) the temporal boundary even for very modest input pulse intensity fluctuations. We advance a statistical theory of the phenomenon and show that the TBS emerges as an extremely rare event in a nonintegrable nonlinear system, heralded by colossal intensity fluctuations with unprecedented magnitudes of the normalized intensity autocorrelation function of the reflected/transmitted pulse ensemble.