Photon filamentation in resonant media with high Fresnel numbers

The phenomenon of turbulent photon filamentation occurs in lasers and other active optical media at high Fresnel numbers. A description of this phenom enon is suggested. The solutions to evolution equations are presented in th e form of a bunch of filaments chaotically distributed in space and having different radii. The probability distribution of patterns is defined charac terizing the probabilistic weight of different filaments. The most probable filament radius and filament number are found and are in good agreement wi th the experiment. (C) 2001 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".