SolitonIn mathematics and physics, a soliton or solitary wave is a self-reinforcing wave packet that maintains its shape while it propagates at a constant velocity. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium. (Dispersive effects are a property of certain systems where the speed of a wave depends on its frequency.) Solitons are the solutions of a widespread class of weakly nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations describing physical systems.
Floating-point unitA floating-point unit (FPU, colloquially a math coprocessor) is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating-point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root. Some FPUs can also perform various transcendental functions such as exponential or trigonometric calculations, but the accuracy can be very low, so that some systems prefer to compute these functions in software.
Kernel (operating system)The kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer's operating system and generally has complete control over everything in the system. It is the portion of the operating system code that is always resident in memory and facilitates interactions between hardware and software components. A full kernel controls all hardware resources (e.g. I/O, memory, cryptography) via device drivers, arbitrates conflicts between processes concerning such resources, and optimizes the utilization of common resources e.
Fiber-optic communicationFiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared or visible light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is preferred over electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to electromagnetic interference is required. This type of communication can transmit voice, video, and telemetry through local area networks or across long distances.
Toda latticeThe Toda lattice, introduced by , is a simple model for a one-dimensional crystal in solid state physics. It is famous because it is one of the earliest examples of a non-linear completely integrable system. It is given by a chain of particles with nearest neighbor interaction, described by the Hamiltonian and the equations of motion where is the displacement of the -th particle from its equilibrium position, and is its momentum (mass ), and the Toda potential .
Topological defectTopological defects or solitons are irregularities or disruptions that occur within continuous fields or ordered states of matter. These defects, which can take various forms such as points, lines, or surfaces, are characterized by their stability and the fact that they cannot be 'smoothed out' or removed through continuous transformations of the field or material. They play a significant role in various areas of physics, including condensed matter physics, cosmology, and quantum field theory, and can have profound effects on the properties and behavior of the systems in which they occur.
