On the collapse of wave packets in a medium with normal group velocity dispersion

A solution to the problem of realizing the collapse of three-dimensional wave packets in nonlinear media with normal group velocity dispersion is proposed. Wave packets with pronounced hyperbolic topology are shown to collapse; i.e., the field increases infinitely near the system axis. In particular, wave collapse of the tubular axisymmetric packets occurs through the concentration of the compressed ring field distribution at the axis. The collapse is shown to stabilize due to the saturation of nonlinearity or nonlinear dissipation, which restrict the field increase and lead to the packet splitting in the transverse direction.