Appearances and disappearances of Fermi Pasta Ulam recurrence in nonlinear fiber optics

Abstract

The Fermi Pasta Ulam (FPU) recurrence is an ubiquitous phenomenon observable in many fields of physics. Its dynamics is mathematically well described by the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE), in particular through a class of solutions known as Akhmediev Breathers (ABs). This phenomenon been demonstrated experimentally in optical fibers a few years ago, in a system which was modeled by a pure NLSE. More recently, the renew of interest on ABs due to the major role they play in rogue wave dynamics motivated new investigations in the low dispersion regime, where third-order dispersion must be accounted for. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally and numerically that this convective term leads to multiple disappearance and restorations of the FPU process when approaching the zero dispersion region of the optical fiber.