Symmetry breaking term effects on explosive localized solitons

We study the influence of an analog of self-steepening (SST), which is a term breaking the T -> -T symmetry, on explosive localized solutions for the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation in the anomalous dispersion regime. We find that while this explosive behavior occurs for a wide range of the parameter s, characterizing SST, the mean distance between explosions diverges close to a critical value s(c). After this value the explosive solution becomes a fixed shape soliton that moves at constant speed. The transition between explosive and regular behavior is characterized by a transcritical bifurcation controlled by the SST parameter. We also proposed a mechanism which explains and predicts the mean distance between explosions as a function of s. We are glad to dedicate this article to Professor Helmut R. Brand on occasion of his 60th birthday.