Abstract

The propagation of partially incoherent optical waves in nonlinear media is a subject of growing interest in different fields, e.g., incoherent solitons (IS), supercontinuum generation, random lasers or rogue waves [1]. In particular, the long term evolution of an incoherent optical wave is known to be characterized by a process of thermalization [2]. It refers to an irreversible evolution of the wave toward the thermodynamic equilibrium state that realizes the maximum of entropy - in complete analogy with the well-known thermalization of a gas system.

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