Universal Nature of the Nonlinear Stage of Modulational Instability.

We characterize the nonlinear stage of modulational instability (MI) by studying the longtime asymptotics of the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation on the infinite line with initial conditions tending to constant values at infinity. Asymptotically in time, the spatial domain divides into three regions: a far left and a far right field, in which the solution is approximately equal to its initial value, and a central region in which the solution has oscillatory behavior described by slow modulations of the periodic traveling wave solutions of the focusing NLS equation. These results demonstrate that the asymptotic stage of MI is universal since the behavior of a large class of perturbations characterized by a continuous spectrum is described by the same asymptotic state.