Self-reconstruction of light filaments.

By observing how a light filament generated in water reconstructs itself after hitting a beam stopper in the presence and in the absence of a nonlinear medium, we describe the occurrence of an important linear contribution to reconstruction that is associated with the conical nature of the wave. A possible scenario by which conical wave components are generated inside the medium by the distributed stopper or reflector created by nonlinear losses or plasma is presented.