STABILITY AND QUASI-EQUIDISTANT PROPAGATION OF NLS SOLITON TRAINS

Using the complex Toda chain we model the asymptotic behavior of the N soliton pulse trains of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Stable as ymptotic regimes are: (i) asymptotically free propagation of all N sol itons; (ii) bound state regime where the N solitons may move quasi-equ idistantly (QED); and (iii) various intermediate regimes. Our method a llows one to determine analytically the set of initial soliton paramet ers corresponding to each regime. We list the soliton parameters, whic h ensure QED propagation of all N solitons since this is important for optical fiber communication. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B .V.