Time-periodic solitons in a damped-driven nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Abstract: Time-periodic solitons of the parametrically driven damped nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation are obtained as solutions of the boundary-value problem on a two-dimensional spatiotemporal domain. We follow the transformation of the periodic solitons as the strength of the driver is varied. The resulting bifurcation diagrams provide a natural explanation for the overall form and details of the attractor chart compiled previously via direct numerical simulations. In particular, the diagrams confirm the occurrence of the period-doubling transition to temporal chaos for small values of dissipation and the absence of such transitions for larger dampings. This difference in the soliton's response to the increasing driving strength can be traced to the difference in the radiation frequencies in the two cases. Finally, we relate the soliton's temporal chaos to the homoclinic bifurcation.