DO SOLITONS EXCHANGE CONSERVED QUANTITIES DURING COLLISIONS

The redistribution of conserved quantities among colliding solitons of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation is considered. An analogy with the theory of spatial solitons in nonlinear optics provides one way to ca lculate this redistribution. In this context, exchanges of conserved q uantities among N colliding solitons can be completely described from a knowledge of the case for N = 2. It is shown that solitons generally exchange L(2) norm as they collide, with the fraction shared being sm all when the solitons differ significantly in velocity or amplitude. E xchanges of other conserved densities are also considered.