Global and Local Chaos in the Pumped Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

Abstract
An optical ring cavity is considered in which the propagation of an envelope pulse is described by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This cavity is pumped by a coherent train of pulses. As the pump intensity is increased a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations is followed by an inverse sequence (chaotic band structure). The global (moment) and local (field) properties of the pulse sequences have the same dynamical behavior. Bistability and the merging of two chaotic branches have also been observed.