title: Control of gradient catastrophes developing from dark beams.
abstract: We investigate dispersive shock waves developing via a gradient catastrophe during propagation of a dark beam in Kerr defocusing media, showing that a good degree of control, and even shock suppression, is possible by introducing a suitable phase chirp. Insight into the process is obtained by means of a suitable reduction of the hydrodynamic limit of the governing nonlinear Schrödinger equation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy. stefania.malaguti@unife.it
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malaguti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Corli
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Trillo