Fermi–Pasta–Ulam recurrence and modulation instability

Abstract

We give a qualitative explanation of the analog of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) recurrence in a one-dimensional focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE). That recurrence can be considered as a result of the nonlinear development of modulation instability. All known exact localized solitons-type solutions describing propagation on the background of the modulationally unstable condensate show the recurrence to the condensate state after its interaction with solitons. The condensate state locally recovers its original form with the same amplitude but a different phase after soliton leave its initial region. This is the analog of the FPU recurrence for the NLSE. Based on the integrability of the NLSE, we demonstrate that the FPU recurrence takes place not only for condensate but for more general solution in the form of the cnoidal wave. This solution is periodic in space and can be represented as a solitonic lattice. That lattice reduces to isolated soliton solution in the limit of large distance between solitons. The lattice transforms into the condensate in the opposite limit of dense soliton packing. The cnoidal wave is also modulationally unstable due to soliton overlapping. This instability at the linear stage does not provide the cnoidal wave recurrence. The recurrence happens at the nonlinear stage of the modulation instability. From the practical point of view the latter property is very important, especially for the fiber communication systems which use soliton as an information carrier.