Ballistic dispersive shock waves in optical fibers

We experimentally and numerically report on the formation of ballistic dispersive shock waves that mimic superfluid behavior in optical fibers. The shock wave is triggered by a strong nonlinear phase shift induced by a high power pump pulse on a cross-polarized continuous-wave probe field, and it exhibits a central void surrounded by two oscillating fronts moving away from each other with opposite velocities. The impact of disorder in the continuous-wave background as well as the difference of group-velocities between the two orthogonally polarized waves is also investigated. Our experimental observations are in very good agreement with theoretical and numerical predictions derived from the Manakov model.