Rogue waves in multiphase solutions of the focusing NLS equation

Abstract: Rogue waves appearing on deep water or in optical fibres are often modelled by certain breather solutions of the focusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger (fNLS) equation which are referred to as solitons on finite background (SFBs). A more general modelling of rogue waves can be achieved via the consideration of multiphase, or finite-band, fNLS solutions of whom the standard SFBs and the structures forming due to their collisions represent particular, degenerate, cases. A generalised rogue wave notion then naturally enters as a large-amplitude localised coherent structure occurring within a finite-band fNLS solution. In this paper, we use the winding of real tori to show the mechanism of the appearance of such generalized rogue waves and derive an analytical criterion distinguishing finite-band potentials of the fNLS equation that exhibit generalised rogue waves.