State transformations of colliding optical solitons and possible application to computation in bulk media

Using explicit, bright-soliton solutions fur the coupled Manakov system recently described by Radhakrishnan, Lakshmanan, and Hietarinta, we show that collisions of these solitons can be completely described by explicit linear fractional transformations of a complex-valued polarization state. We design sequences of solitons operating on other sequences of solitons that effect logic operations, including controlled NOT gates. Both data and logic operators have the self-restoring and reusability features of digital logic circuits. This suggests a method for implementing computation in a bulk nonlinear medium without interconnecting discrete components. [S1063-651X(98)15711-2].