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Solitons, Introduction to

Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science
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The concept of solitons reflects one of the most important developments in science in the second half of the twentieth century: the nonlinear description of the world. It is not easy to give a comprehensive and precise definition of a soliton. Frequently, a soliton is explained as a spatially localized wave in a medium that can interact strongly with other solitons but will afterwards regain its original form.

It is a nonlinear pulse-like wave that can exist in some nonlinear systems. The soliton wave can propagate without dispersing its energy over a large region of space; collision of two solitons leads to unchanged forms, and solitons also exhibit particle-like properties.

The most remarkable property of solitons is that they do not disperse and thus conserve their form during propagation and collision. Solitons Interactions.

The nonlinear science has been growing for approximately 50 years. However, numerous nonlinear processes had been previously identified, but the nonlinear...

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Correspondence to Mohamed A. Helal .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Helal, M.A. (2014). Solitons, Introduction to. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_508-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_508-4

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Solitons, Introduction to
    Published:
    21 January 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_508-5

  2. Original

    Solitons, Introduction to
    Published:
    18 April 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_508-4