Lateral phase drift of the topological charge density in stochastic optical fields

The statistical distributions of optical vortices or topological charge in stochastic optical fields can be inhomogeneous in both transverse directions. Such two-dimensional inhomogeneous vortex or topological charge distributions evolve in a complex way during free-space propagation. While the evolution of one-dimensional topological charge densities can be described by a linear diffusion process, the evolution of two-dimensional topological charge densities exhibits some additional nonlinear dynamics. Here we propose a phase drift mechanism as a partial explanation for this additional nonlinear dynamics. Numerical results are presented in support of this proposal.