Bright-soliton collisions with shape change by intensity redistribution for the coupled Sasa–Satsuma system in the optical fiber communications

• The 5 × 5 Lax representation and Darboux transformation are constructed.
• The bright N-soliton solutions are derived with symbolic computation.
• Different soliton collision behavior and energy transfer mechanism are revealed.

By means of symbolic computation and Darboux transformation, analytically and numerically investigated in this paper is a two-coupled Sasa–Satsuma system, which can describe the pulse propagation in birefringent fibers, so as to increase the bit rate in optical fibers, or achieve wavelength-division multiplexing. Analytical bright N-soliton solution of the system is firstly derived. Based on the bright one- and two-soliton solutions, numerical simulation and figure illustration are carried out on through the multi-parametric management, i.e., different choices among eight parameters in the two-soliton solutions. The interaction mechanisms for the bright two-solitons are revealed in three aspects: Separating evolution behaviors, elastic collision behaviors and inelastic collision behaviors. There exist three different cases for the inelastic collision for the two-soliton, which reflect correspondingly different energy transfer mechanisms (by intensity redistribution) between the two components: Manakov-typed collision; a near-elastic collision and another completely inelastic collision between the two components; and four single-solitons in two components undergo shape changes (inelastic and elastic) due to intensity redistribution, where one single-soliton keeps invariant and the other three single-solitons change during the collision. The collision mechanisms may be viewed as the two-solitons interact in a waveguide supporting propagation of two nonlinear waves simultaneously. In general, partial suppression (enhancement) of intensity between the components is dependent on the values of the soliton parameters.