title: Azimuthal instability of spinning spatiotemporal solitons
abstract: We find one-parameter families of three-dimensional spatiotemporal bright vortex solitons (doughnuts, or spinning light bullets), in dispersive quadratically nonlinear media. We show that they are subject to a strong instability against azimuthal perturbations, similarly to the previously studied (2+1)-dimensional bright spatial vortex solitons. The instability breaks the spinning soliton into several fragments, each being a stable nonspinning light bullet.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Solid State Theory and Theoretical Optics, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743, Jena, Germany and Department of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Atomic Physics, P.O. Box MG-6, Bucharest, Romania.
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mihalache
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mazilu
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Crasovan
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Malomed
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lederer