Glassy behavior of light.
We study the nonlinear dynamics of a multimode random laser using the methods of statistical physics of disordered systems. A replica-symmetry breaking phase transition is predicted as a function of the pump intensity. We thus show that light propagating in a random nonlinear medium displays glassy behavior; i.e., the photon gas has a multitude of metastable states and a nonvanishing complexity, corresponding to mode-locking processes in random lasers. The present work reveals the existence of new physical phenomena, and demonstrates how nonlinear optics and random lasers can be a benchmark for the modern theory of complex systems and glasses.
Angelani
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Research Center SMC INFM-CNR, c/o Università di Roma La Sapienza, I-00185, Roma, Italy.
Conti
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Ruocco
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Zamponi
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