Modulation instability and non-degenerate Akhmediev breathers of Manakov equations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of non-degenerate Akhmediev breather solutions for the focusing Manakov equations, providing an existence diagram and analyzing their excitation via modulation instability.

Contribution

It presents the first exact non-degenerate Akhmediev breather solutions for the Manakov equations and maps their existence conditions.

Findings

Non-degenerate ABs only exist in the focusing case.

Modulation instability can excite three ABs simultaneously.

Existence diagram of these excitations is provided.

Abstract

We reveal a new class of \textit{non-degenerate} Akhmediev breather (AB) solutions of Manakov equations that only exist in the focusing case. Based on exact solutions, we present the existence diagram of such excitations on the frequency-wavenumber plane. Conventional single-frequency modulation instability leads to simultaneous excitation of three ABs with two of them being non-degenerate.