Engineered discreteness enables observation and control of chimera-like states in a system with local coupling
arXiv:1910.11329
Abstract
Chimera states -- named after the mythical beast with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's tail -- correspond to spatiotemporal patterns characterised by the coexistence of coherent and incoherent domains in coupled systems. They were first identified in 2002 in theoretical studies of spatially extended networks of Stuart-Landau oscillators, and have been subject to extensive theoretical and experimental research ever since. While initially considered peculiar to networks with weak nonlocal coupling, recent theoretical studies have predicted that chimera-like states can emerge even in systems with purely local coupling. Here we report on the first experimental observations of chimera-like states in a system with local coupling -- a coherently-driven Kerr nonlinear optical resonator. We show that artificially engineered discreteness -- realised by suitably modulating the coherent driving field -- allows for the nonlinear localisation of spatiotemporal complexity, and we demonstrate unprecedented control over the existence, characteristics, and dynamics of the resulting chimera-like states. Moreover, using ultrafast time lens imaging, we resolve the chimeras' picosecond-scale internal structure in real time.
arXiv comment9 pages, 5 figures
References in corpus (13)
- Chimera States for Coupled Oscillators
- Chimera states: Coexistence of coherence and incoherence in networks of coupled oscillators
- Chimera States in Mechanical Oscillator Networks
- Coexistence of Coherence and Incoherence in Nonlocally Coupled Phase Oscillators
- Dynamics of soliton crystals in optical microresonators
- Direct observation of Rogue Waves in optical turbulence using Time Microscopy
- Laser Chimeras as a paradigm for multi-stable patterns in complex systems
- Chimeras in networks with purely local coupling
- Observations of spatiotemporal instabilities in the strong-driving regime of an AC-driven nonlinear Schrödinger system
- Panoramic-reconstruction temporal imaging for seamless measurements of slowly-evolved femtosecond pulse dynamics
- Turbulence-induced rogue waves in Kerr resonators
- Characterization of spatiotemporal chaos in Kerr optical frequency {comb generators} and in fiber cavity
- Emission of intense resonant radiation by dispersion-managed Kerr cavity solitons