Nondegenerate Solitons in Manakov System

It is known that the Manakov equation which describes wave propagation in two mode optical fibers, photorefractive materials, etc., can admit solitons which allow energy redistribution between the modes on collision that also leads to logical computing. In this Letter, we point out that the Manakov system can admit a more general type of nondegenerate fundamental solitons corresponding to different wave numbers, which undergo collisions without any energy redistribution. The previously known class of solitons which allows energy redistribution among the modes turns out to be a special case corresponding to solitary waves with identical wave numbers in both the modes and traveling with the same velocity. We trace out the reason behind such a possibility and analyze the physical consequences.