Collisions of laser solitons

A theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of a soliton collider (a wide-aperture laser with saturable absorption and variable length of the cavity) are performed. The presence of the cavity length gradient in a part of the aperture allows one to accelerate the laser soliton up to noticeable values of the transverse velocity. As a result, it becomes possible to implement a high-energy collision of the soliton with another laser soliton located in the other part of the aperture where the length of the cavity is constant. Different scenarios are presented for the strong interaction of colliding laser solitons with different topological charges.