Interactions of Airy beams, nonlinear accelerating beams, and induced solitons in Kerr and saturable nonlinear media

We investigate numerically interactions between two in-phase or out-of-phase Airy beams and nonlinear accelerating beams in Kerr and saturable nonlinear media in one transverse dimension. We discuss different cases in which the beams with different intensities are launched into the medium, but accelerate in opposite (or in the same) directions. Since both the Airy beams and nonlinear accelerating beams possess infinite oscillating tails, we discuss interactions between truncated beams, with finite energies. During interactions we see solitons and soliton pairs generated that are not accelerating. Upon adjusting the interval between the launched beams, their interaction exhibits different properties. If the interval is large relative to the width of the first lobes, the generated soliton pairs just propagate individually and do not interact. However, if the interval is comparable to the widths of the maximum lobes, the pairs strongly interact and display varied behavior. The generated solitons may repel or attract each other. If the overlapping lobes of the two launched beams are out-of-phase, the solitons induced from them repel each other, while if they are in-phase, the solitons attract each other.