Abstract

Classical solitons propagate in optical fibers as described by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.^[1] When this field theory is quantized one obtains an effective nonrelativistic many-body field theory in which pairs of photons interact through attractive delta function potentials.^[2] The origin of this interaction is the exchange of virtual atomic excitation by the photons. The existence of bound states between photons is the microscopic phenomenon which prevents pulses from spreading by dispersion.^[3]

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