Time-Reversal Generation of Rogue Waves

The formation of extreme localizations in nonlinear dispersive media can be explained and described within the framework of nonlinear evolution equations, such as the nonlinear Schr"odinger equation (NLS). Within the class of exact NLS breather solutions on finite background, which describe the modulational instability of monochromatic wave trains, the hierarchy of both in time and space localized rational solutions are considered to be appropriate prototypes to model rogue wave dynamics. Here, we use the time-reversal invariance of the NLS to propose and experimentally demonstrate a new approach to construct strongly nonlinear localized waves focused both in time and space. The potential areas of applications of this time-reversal approach range from remote sensing to motivated analogous experimental analysis in other nonlinear dispersive media, such as optics, Bose-Einstein condensates and plasma, where the wave motion dynamics is governed by the NLS.