The robust (solitonlike) nature of bistable light bullets is demonstrated numerically for some illustrative models through three-dimensional switching simulations and collision studies. Bistable light bullets are propagating, spheroidal, bright optical solitons characterized by different sizes and intensity profiles but with the same energy.

The stability of the solitary-wave solutions of the nonlinear cubic–quintic Schrödinger equation (NLCQSE) is examined numerically. The solutions are found not to be solitons, but quasi-soliton behaviour is found to persist over wide regions of parameter space. Outside these regions dispersive and explosive behaviour is observed in solitary-wave interactions.

Numerical scattering experiments in a medium characterized by a simple saturable refractive index demonstrate the particlelike behavior of three-dimensional bright optical envelope solitons ("light bullets" ) for the situation where the colliding bullets initially have a s-phase difference and are on the positive-slope branch of the energy curve. By varying the initial bullet velocities, bullet energy content, and the impact parameter, the nature of the repulsive interaction potential (i.e., the force law) is ascertained to be a Yukawa potential whose decay constant agrees quite well with that obtained by assuming that each light bullet "sees" only the "tail" of the other bullet. The scattering data scale correctly with velocity and one finds that the bullet energy is the natural analog of particle mass.PACS number(s): 42.65.Pc, 42.50.Rh

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