Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou Recurrence in Spatial Optical Dynamics

Celebrated as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT) problem, the reappearance of initial conditions in unstable and chaotic systems is one of the most controversial phenomena in nonlinear dynamics. Integrable models predict recurrence as exact solutions [1], but the difficulties involved in upholding integrability for a long dynamics has not allowed a quantitative experimental validation. Evidences of the recurrence of states have been reported from deep water waves [2] to optical fibers [3]. However, the observation of the FPUT dynamics as predicted by exact solutions of an underlying integrable model remains an open challenge. Here, we report the observation of the FPUT recurrence in spatial nonlinear optics and provide evidence that the recurrent behavior is ruled by the exact solution of the Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation [4].