We report on the formation of a dispersive shock wave in a nonlinear optical medium. We monitor the evolution of the shock by tuning the incoming beam power. The experimental observations for the position and intensity of the solitonic edge of the shock, as well as the location of the nonlinear oscillations are well described by recent developments of Whitham modulation theory. Our work constitutes a detailed and accurate benchmark for this approach. It opens exciting possibilities to engineer specific configurations of optical shock wave for studying wave-mean flow interaction.

中文翻译：

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流体中冲击波动力学的定量分析

我们报告了在非线性光学介质中色散冲击波的形成。我们通过调整入射光束的功率来监测冲击的发展。Whitham调制理论的最新发展很好地描述了冲击的孤子边沿的位置和强度以及非线性振荡的位置的实验观察结果。我们的工作构成了此方法的详细而准确的基准。它开辟了令人兴奋的可能性，可以设计特定的光学冲击波配置来研究波均流相互作用。