Extreme or rogue waves are large and unexpected waves appearing with higher probability than predicted by Gaussian statistics. Although their formation is explained by both linear and nonlinear wave propagation, nonlinearity has been considered a necessary ingredient to generate super rogue waves, i.e., an enhanced wave amplification, where the wave amplitudes exceed by far those of ordinary rogue waves. Here we show, experimentally and theoretically, that optical super rogue waves emerge in the simple case of linear light diffraction in one transverse dimension. The underlying physics is a long-range correlation on the random initial phases of the light waves. When subgroups of random phases appear recurrently along the spatial phase distribution, a more ordered phase structure greatly increases the probability of constructive interference to generate super rogue events (non-Gaussian statistics with superlong tails). Our results consist in a significant advance in the understanding of extreme waves formation by linear superposition of random waves, with applications in a large variety of wave systems.

中文翻译：

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线性状态下的超级流浪产生

极端波或无赖波很大，意外波的出现概率比高斯统计所预测的要高。尽管它们的形成可以通过线性和非线性波传播来解释，但是非线性已被认为是生成超级流浪的必要成分，即增强的波放大，其波幅远远超过普通流浪。在这里，我们从实验和理论上表明，在一个横向尺寸的线性光衍射的简单情况下，会出现光学超级流氓波。基本物理原理是光波的随机初始相位之间的长期关联。当随机相位的子组沿着空间相位分布反复出现时，更有序的相位结构会大大增加相长干扰产生超级流氓事件（具有超长尾巴的非高斯统计量）的可能性。我们的结果包括在对随机波线性叠加形成极端波的理解方面取得了重大进展，并在多种波系统中得到了应用。