Moment equations for optical pulses in dispersive and dissipative systems

The moment method is used to derive evolution equations for the energy, width and chirp of an optical pulse in a dispersive and dissipative (filtered) system. This method is conceptually simpler than the variational and soliton-perturbation methods, and allows the dispersion and dissipation coefficients to have arbitrary relative magnitude. The moment equations are used to study the effects of filtering on pulse dynamics and equilibria, and their predictions are compared to the results of numerical simulations based on the Ginzburg-Landau equation.