Refined fiber laser model

With modification, a recently proposed laser array model is found to agree quantitatively with fiber laser experiments. Comparisons of transient behavior, stable dynamical states, and transitions are made using both previously published and new experiments. While the original model agrees well for fibers with relatively low losses, achieving quantitative agreement over a wide range of operating conditions requires more physically appropriate descriptions of gain dynamics. The refined model is derived, and its predictions are found to be in excellent agreement with experiments.