title: Braiding of two spiraling laser beams due to plasma wave wakes.
abstract: We study how two Gaussian laser beams interact through plasma wave wakes produced when they co-propagate in a plasma. Using a variational principle, we derive equations of motion for the centroid of each beam, and find braided centroid solutions. These results can be generalized to other nonlinear optical media with non-instantaneous nonlinearity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Duda
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Mori