Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A pulselike wave that can exist in nonlinear systems, does not obey the superposition principle, and does not disperse.
Wiktionary
- n. physics, mathematics a self-reinforcing travelling wave or pulse caused by any non-linear effect; found in many physical systems
WordNet 3.0
- n. (physics) a quantum of energy or quasiparticle that can be propagated as a traveling wave in nonlinear systems and is neither preceded nor followed by another such disturbance; does not obey the superposition principle and does not dissipate
Etymologies
- solit(ary) + -on1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is very unusual, and it is called a soliton, or solitary wave.”
“In waves and optics parlance, a soliton is a single wave that retains its shape while traveling at a constant speed for significant distances.”
“While we have understood and appreciated that there is a rich bounty of physical phenomena contained in the theory, this has mostly been uncovered in perturbation theory, occasionally sweetened by a glimpse into the non – perturbative realm afforded by special sectors of the theory such as soliton solutions (including branes of various sorts) or various topological reductions.”
“These everlasting waves are exotic enough, but theoreticians at the Joint Quantum Institute now believe that there may be a new kind of soliton that's even more special.”
“These everlasting waves are exotic enough, but theoreticians at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, and their colleagues in India and the George Mason University, now believe that there may be a new kind of soliton that's even more special.”
“a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland, and their colleagues in India and the George Mason University, now believe that there may be a new kind of soliton that's even more special.”
“This wave mechanics is a type of soliton associated with the anti-de Sitter configuration of each cosmology, which is dependent on the value of the cosmological constant or “Lambda.””
“These endpoints define 0-branes, and there are some ideas that the whole of M - theory can be reduced to sigma models or soliton field theories of these point-like particles.”
“Maldecena and Lin conjecture that orbifold solutions in String Theory could decay into these soliton states as tachyons condense.”
“The suffix ˜- on™ is meant to call to mind the similar ending that is common in names of fundamental particles in physics, such as proton, neutron, soliton, etc.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘soliton’.
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Waves and Waveforms
wave, brainwave, soliton, traveling wave, tidal wave, transverse wave, capillary wave, cats' paws, alpha wave, light wave, microwave, acoustic wave and 314 more...
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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Particularly Interesting
Particles, particles, particles!
atom, molecule, neutron, proton, electron, quark, boson, fermion, antiquark, hadron, lepton, antilepton and 123 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Sounding like a superhero
Words that sound like they could be the name of a superhero. Or supervillain. Or one of their weapons. Or some form of super paraphernalia...
narcissistic supply, nipple discharge, Radium Girls, exotic pollution, superior meatus, toxic megacolon, neuroblast, extinction burst, butterfly eruption, natural killer cell, spongiform pustul..., zonule of Zinn and 155 more...
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ruzuzu's taxonomy
limit cycle, gyre, oscillation, meander, general adaptatio..., barchan dune, soliton, guilloche, obverse, involute, damaskeening, superposition and 62 more...
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Things that make me happy
mollusque's exact..., hernesheir's vari..., fields full of da..., broccoli, African violets, postcards, long s, minnows, clouds, you, crocus bulbs, yawning cats and 41 more...
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jacquelinew's Words
grok, gimbaled, hortatory, geoid, soliton, inane, cygnet, exegesis, bifurcated, chartreuse, hermetically, orb and 7 more...
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tenebras's Words
Tweets
Looking for tweets for soliton.
ruzuzu "In waves and optics parlance, a soliton is a single wave that retains its shape while traveling at a constant speed for significant distances. This type of wave can only happen in certain media, like water, where movement is unrestricted. For example, as a water wave moves, it tends to break and curl forward. But sometimes its forward motion is sufficient that the wave will continually catch itself and can't break, resulting in a soliton."
--Peregrine soliton may explain ocean's rogue waves
by Casey Johnston, arstechnica.com
Jul 25, 2011
jacquelinew I first came across this word when researching for a paper on optical sensors. I came across a book in the library titled "Optical Solutions" or at least that's how I read it, and I assumed a big book on optical solutions must have a section on sensors! It took several minutes of increasingly confused attempts to find said section before I took a good look at the word "solution" and realized that it actually said "soliton." Sadly, the book did not feature any optical soliton based sensors... Jan 19, 2007