Observation of soliton interaction and planetlike orbiting in Bessel-like photonic lattices

We demonstrate spatial soliton interaction and rotation in optically induced Bessel-like photonic lattices. Particlelike circular motion as well as planetlike orbiting of two solitons is observed under different initial excitations in the ring-shaped lattices. We show that, while small rotation/oscillation of solitons can be initiated by soliton self-bending, planetlike orbiting of a "satellite" soliton can be realized by imposing an initial angular momentum from a vortex beam. Our experimental results are corroborated by numerical simulations.