Periodic travelling waves in convex Klein-Gordon chains

We study Klein-Gordon chains with attractive nearest neighbour forces and convex on-site potential, and show that there exists a two-parameter family of periodic travelling waves (wave trains) with unimodal and even profile functions. Our existence proof is based on a saddle-point problem with constraints and exploits the invariance properties of an improvement operator. Finally, we discuss the numerical computation of wave trains.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Discrete Breathers

Nonlinear classical Hamiltonian lattices exhibit generic solutions in the form of discrete breathers. These solutions are time-periodic and (typically exponentially) localized in space. The lattices exhibit discrete translational symmetry. Discrete breathers are not confined to certain lattice dimensions. Necessary ingredients for their occurence are the existence of upper bounds on the phonon spectrum (of small fluctuations around the groundstate) of the system as well as the nonlinearity in the differential equations. We will present existence proofs, formulate necessary existence conditions, and discuss structural stability of discrete breathers. The following results will be also discussed: the creation of breathers through tangent bifurcation of band edge plane waves; dynamical stability; details of the spatial decay; numerical methods of obtaining breathers; interaction of breathers with phonons and electrons; movability; influence of the lattice dimension on discrete breather properties; quantum lattices - quantum breathers. Finally we will formulate a new conceptual aproach capable of predicting whether discrete breather exist for a given system or not, without actually solving for the breather. We discuss potential applications in lattice dynamics of solids (especially molecular crystals), selective bond excitations in large molecules, dynamical properties of coupled arrays of Josephson junctions, and localization of electromagnetic waves in photonic crystals with nonlinear response.Comment: 62 pages, LaTeX, 14 ps figures. Physics Reports, to be published; see also at http://www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~flach/html/preprints.htm

Numerical analysis of solitons profiles in a composite model for DNA to rsion dynamics

We present the results of our numerical analysis of a "composite" model of DNA which generalizes a well-known elementary torsional model of Yakushevich by allowing bases to move independently from the backbone. The model shares with the Yakushevich model many features and results but it represents an improvement from both the conceptual and the phenomenological point of view. It provides a more realistic description of DNA and possibly a justification for the use of models which consider the DNA chain as uniform. It shows that the existence of solitons is a generic feature of the underlying nonlinear dynamics and is to a large extent independent of the detailed modelling of DNA. As opposite to the Yakushevich model, where it is needed to use an unphysical value for the torsion in order to induce the correct velocity of sound, the model we consider supports solitonic solutions, qualitatively and quantitatively very similar to the Yakushevich solitons, in a fully realistic range of all the physical parameters characterizing the DNA.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Periodic and compacton travelling wave solutions of discrete nonlinear Klein-Gordon lattices

We prove the existence of periodic travelling wave solutions for general discrete nonlinear Klein-Gordon systems, considering both cases of hard and soft on-site potentials. In the case of hard on-site potentials we implement a fixed point theory approach, combining Schauder's fixed point theorem and the contraction mapping principle. This approach enables us to identify a ring in the energy space for non-trivial solutions to exist, energy (norm) thresholds for their existence and upper bounds on their velocity. In the case of soft on-site potentials, the proof of existence of periodic travelling wave solutions is facilitated by a variational approach based on the Mountain Pass Theorem. The proof of the existence of travelling wave solutions satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions establishes rigorously the presence of compactons in discrete nonlinear Klein-Gordon chains. Thresholds on the averaged kinetic energy for these solutions to exist are also derived.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur