Symbolic computation and solitons of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation in inhomogeneous optical fiber media

In this paper, the inhomogeneous nonlinear Schrodinger equation with the loss/gain and the frequency chirping is investigated. With the help of symbolic computation, three families of exact analytical solutions are presented by employing the extended projective Riccati equation method. From our results, many previous known results of nonlinear Schrodinger equation obtained by some authors can be recovered by means of some suitable selections of the arbitrary functions and arbitrary constants. Of optical and physical interests, soliton propagation and soliton interaction are discussed and simulated by computer, which include snake-soliton propagation and snake-solitons interaction, boomerang-like soliton propagation and boomerang-like solitons interaction, dispersion managed (DM) bright (dark) soliton propagation and DM solitons interaction. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.