INSTABILITY OF 2-DIMENSIONAL SOLITONS AND VORTICES IN DEFOCUSING MEDIA

In the framework of the three-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation the instability of two-dimensional solitons and vortices is demonstrated. The soliton instability can be considered as the analog of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili instability (Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 192, 753 (1970) [Sov. Phys. Dokl. 15, 539 (1970)]) of one-dimensional acoustic solitons in media with positive dispersion. For large distances between the vortices, this instability transforms into the Crow instability [AIAA J. 8, 2172 (1970)] of two vortex filaments with opposite circulations. © 1995 The American Physical Society.