On the existence of infinitely many nonperturbative solutions in a transmission eigenvalue problem for nonlinear Helmholtz equation with polynomial nonlinearity

The paper focuses on a transmission eigenvalue problem for nonlinear Helmholtz equation with polynomial nonlinearity which describes the propagation of transverse electric waves along a dielectric layer filled with nonlinear medium. It is proved that even if the nonlinearity coefficients are small, the nonlinear problem has infinitely many nonperturbative solutions, whereas the corresponding linear problem always has a finite number of solutions. This results in the theoretical existence of a novel type of nonlinear guided waves that exist only in nonlinear guided systems. Asymptotic distribution of the eigenvalues is found and a comparison theorem is proved; periodicity of the eigenfunctions is proved, the exact formula for the period is found, and the zeros of the eigenfunctions are determined. The results found essentially extend the theory evolved earlier (particular cases for Kerr, cubic-quintic, septic nonlinearities, etc. are easily extracted from the general results found here). Numerical results are also presented.