The interaction of two intense laser pulses of different frequencies as they pass through each other in opposite directions in a certain resonant absorbing fluid can be described [RE76] by the following normalized PDEs for the laser intensities $U$ and $V$,
$$
\frac{\partial U}{\partial x}+\frac{\partial U}{\partial y}=-g_1 U V-\alpha U, \quad \frac{\partial V}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial V}{\partial y}=-g_2 U V+\alpha V .
$$
Here $x$ is the normalized distance inside the fluid medium of length one unit, $y$ the normalized time, $g_1>0$ and $g_2>0$ are the "gain" coefficients, and $\alpha \geq 0$ the absorption coefficient. The $U$ pulse travels in the positive $x$ direction, while the $V$ pulse moves in the negative $x$ direction.
(a) Find the characteristic directions along which the PDEs reduce to ODEs.
(b) Devise an explicit numerical scheme that integrates the ODEs along the characteristic directions assuming that there are no pulses initially inside the fluid $(U(x, 0)=V(x, 0)=0$ for $0<x<1)$ and identical finiteduration $U$ and $V$ pulses are fed in at opposite ends $(U(0, y)=V(1, y)=$ $f(y)$ for $0 \leq y \leq Y=\frac{1}{2}$ and zero for $\left.y>Y\right)$.
(c) Numerically solve the equations and animate the results, assuming that $f(y)=1, g_1=0.4, g_2=20$, and (a) $\alpha=0$, (b) $\alpha=0.5$.
(d) Discuss the behavior of the two pulses as revealed in the animation.
(e) Repeat the calculation and animation for $f(y)=\sin (2 \pi y)$, the parameter values and all boundary and initial conditions remaining the same. Compare the results with those obtained for the rectangular pulses.