title: Superluminal propagation of solitary kinklike waves in amplifying media.
abstract: It is shown that solitary-wave, kinklike structures can propagate superluminally in two- and four-level amplifying media with strongly damped oscillations of coherences. This is done by solving analytically the Maxwell-Bloch equations in the kinetic limit. It is also shown that the true wave fronts--unlike the pseudo wave fronts of the kinks--must propagate with velocity c, so that no violation of special relativity is possible. The conditions of experimental verification are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Instytut Fizyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Al. Lotników 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland. mjanow@ifpan.edu.pl
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janowicz
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mostowski