Experimental observation of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence in a nonlinear feedback ring system

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Jan 26;98(4):047202. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.047202. Epub 2007 Jan 22.

Abstract

Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence through soliton dynamics has been realized. The experiment used a magnetic film strip-based active feedback ring. At some ring gain level, a wide spin wave pulse is self-generated in the ring. As the pulse circulates, it separates into two envelop solitons with different speeds. When the fast soliton catches up and collides with the slow soliton, the initial wide pulse is perfectly reconstructed. The repetition of this process leads to periodic recurrences of the initial pulse.