Light dynamics in nonlinear trimers and twisted multicore fibers

Novel photonic structures such as multi-core fibers and graphene based arrays present unique opportunities to manipulate and control the propagation of light. Here we discuss nonlinear dynamics for structures with a few (2 to 6) elements for which linear and nonlinear properties can be tuned. Specifically we show how nonlinearity, coupling, and parity-time PT symmetric gain/loss relate to existence, stability and in general, dynamical properties of nonlinear optical modes. The main emphasis of our presentation will be on systems with few degrees of freedom, most notably couplers, trimers and generalizations thereof to systems with 6 nodes.