Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation: Singular Solutions and Optical Collapse

Description

This book is an interdisciplinary introduction to optical collapse of laser beams, which is modelled by singular (blow-up) solutions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. With great care and detail, it develops the subject including the mathematical and physical background and the history of the subject. It combines rigorous analysis, asymptotic analysis, informal arguments, numerical simulations, physical modelling, and physical experiments. It repeatedly emphasizes the relations between these approaches, and the intuition behind the results.

The Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation will be useful to graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics who are interested in singular solutions of partial differential equations, nonlinear optics and nonlinear waves, and to graduate students and researchers in physics and engineering who are interested in nonlinear optics and Bose-Einstein condensates. It can be used for courses on partial differential equations, nonlinear waves, and nonlinear optics.