  A traditional view on solitons in optical fibers as robust particle-like
structures suited for informa- tion transmission has been significantly altered
and broadened over the past decade, when solitons have been found to play the
major role in generation of octave broad supercontinuum spectra in
photonic-crystal and other types of optical fibers. This remarkable spectral
broadening is achieved through complex processes of dispersive radiation being
scattered from, emitted and transformed by solitons. Thus solitons have emerged
as the major players in nonlinear frequency conversion in optical fibers.
Unexpected analogies of these processes have been found with dynamics of
ultracold atoms and ocean waves. This colloquium focuses on recent
understanding and new insights into physics of soliton-radiation interaction
and supercontinuum generation.
