Nonlinearity and disorder: Theory and applications

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) entitled Nonlinearity and Disorder: Theory and Applications, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, October 2-6, 2001. Phenomena of coherent structures in nonlinear systems and disorder are considered opposite in nature. For example one of the most fascinating nonlinear wave phenomenon - the soliton - is a highly coherent object, but in disordered linear media we know of the existence of the famous Anderson localization, which means the appearance of localized wave structures in disordered linear media.

Investigations of wave phenomena in disordered nonlinear media show the rich varieties of phenomena interpolating between these two limiting cases. Related problems are the existence of partially coherent nonlinear wave packets in nonlinear media. These aspects have attracted a lot of attention in recent years due to investigations of the photorefractive solitons.

Another very fast growing area induced by the technological development is statistical phenomena in nonlinear pulse propagation in optical fibers. Intrinsic randomness of existing optical communication systems has an important impact on the performance of planned soliton communication systems, in particular dispersion-managed solitons, and require the development of optical soliton theory for these cases.