New Developments in Soliton Research

Book excerpt: Since their discovery a mere thirty years ago, solitons have been invoked to explain such diverse phenomena as: The long lived 'giant red spot' in the highly turbulent Jovian atmosphere. The famous Fermi-Pasta-Ulam paradox wherein a nonlinearly coupled lattice of particles does not display the 'expected equipartition of energy among available modes. It covers: Ion-acoustic waves in a plasma; Energy storage and transfer in proteins via the Davydov soliton; and The propagation of short laser pulses in optical fibres over long distances with negligible shape change. This volume presents important research from around the globe.