Noise induces partial annihilation of colliding dissipative solitons

Partial annihilation of two counterpropagating dissipative solitons, with only one pulse surviving the collision, has been widely observed in different experimental contexts, over a large range of parameters, from hydrodynamics to chemical reactions. However, a generic picture accounting for partial annihilation is missing. Based on our results for coupled complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equations as well as for the FitzHugh-Nagumo equation we conjecture that noise induces partial annihilation of colliding dissipative solitons in many systems.