Interaction forces among solitons in optical fibers.

The propagation of light pulses as solitons in optical fibers may form the basis of a viable means of communication. We show here from the general two-soliton function that solitons in fibers exert forces on their neighbors that decrease exponentially with the distance between them and depend sinusoidally on their relative phase. These forces account for the displacements suffered by solitons during collisions, and their effects must be taken into account in system design.