Two-dimensional dynamics of relativistic solitons in cold plasmas

The two-dimensional dynamics of solitons appearing during relativistic laser-plasma interaction is investigated. The analysis starts from known soliton models in one space-dimension (1D). Some of the soliton solutions are already unstable in 1D, and all suffer from transverse instability in two dimensions (2D). The most unstable modes are calculated. They give a hint to the 2D structures which appear because of transversal effects. The linear stability considerations are supplemented by full 2D nonlinear simulations.