On the spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in synchronously-pumped passive Kerr resonators. (14th October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rossi, J; Carretero-González, R; Kevrekidis, P G; Haragus, M
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 49:Number 45(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-10-14
• Subjects: spontaneous symmetry breaking -- pitchfork bifurcation -- optical resonators -- Lugiato–Lefever model -- variational approximation; Mathematical physics -- Periodicals; Statistical physics -- Periodicals; Quantum theory -- Periodicals; Matter -- Properties -- Periodicals; 530.105
• DOI: 10.1088/1751-8113/49/45/455201
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8113

Abstract

Abstract: We study the spontaneous temporal symmetry breaking instability in a coherently-driven passive optical Kerr resonator observed experimentally by Xu and Coen in (2014 Opt. Lett. 39 3492 ). We perform a detailed stability analysis of the Lugiato–Lefever model for the optical Kerr resonators and analyze the temporal bifurcation structure of stationary symmetric and the emerging asymmetric states as a function of the pump power. For intermediate pump powers a pitchfork loop is responsible for the destabilization of symmetric states towards stationary asymmetric ones while at large pump powers we find the emergence of periodic asymmetric solutions via a Hopf bifurcation. From a theoretical perspective, we use local bifurcation theory in order to analyze the most unstable eigenmode of the system. We also explore a non-conservative variational approximation capturing, among others, the evolution of the solution's amplitude, width and center of mass. Both methods provide insight towards the pitchfork bifurcations associated with the symmetry breaking.