Optical Kerr Spatio-Temporal Dark-Lump Dynamics of Hydrodynamic Origin

There is considerable fundamental and applicative interest in obtaining non-diffractive and non-dispersive spatio-temporal localized wave packets propagating in optical cubic nonlinear or Kerr media. Here, we analytically predict the existence of a novel family of spatio-temporal dark lump solitary wave solutions of the (2+1)D nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. Dark lumps represent multi-dimensional holes of light on a continuous wave background. We analytically derive the dark lumps from the hydrodynamic exact soliton solutions of the (2+1)D shallow water Kadomtsev-Petviashvili model, inheriting their complex interaction properties. This finding opens a novel path for the excitation and control of optical multidimensional extreme wave phenomena of hydrodynamic footprint.