Multi-site breathers in Klein-Gordon lattices: stability, resonances, and bifurcations

We prove the most general theorem about spectral stability of multi-site breathers in the discrete Klein-Gordon equation with a small coupling constant. In the anti-continuum limit, multi-site breathers represent excited oscillations at different sites of the lattice separated by a number of "holes" (sites at rest). The theorem describes how the stability or instability of a multi-site breather depends on the phase difference and distance between the excited oscillators. Previously, only multi-site breathers with adjacent excited sites were considered within the first-order perturbation theory. We show that the stability of multi-site breathers with one-site holes change for large-amplitude oscillations in soft nonlinear potentials. We also discover and study a symmetry-breaking (pitchfork) bifurcation of one-site and multi-site breathers in soft quartic potentials near the points of 1:3 resonance.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figure

Global existence and asymptotics for quasi-linear one-dimensional Klein-Gordon equations with mildly decaying Cauchy data

Let u be a solution to a quasi-linear Klein-Gordon equation in one-space dimension, $\Box u + u = P (u,$\partial$\_t u,$\partial$\_x u;$\partial$\_t$\partial$\_x u,$\partial$^2\_x u)$ , where P is a homogeneous polynomial of degree three, and with smooth Cauchy data of size $\epsilon \rightarrow 0$. It is known that, under a suitable condition on the nonlinearity, the solution is global-in-time for compactly supported Cauchy data. We prove in this paper that the result holds even when data are not compactly supported but just decaying as $\langle x \rangle^ {--1}$ at infinity, combining the method of Klainerman vector fields with a semiclassical normal forms method introduced by Delort. Moreover, we get a one term asymptotic expansion for u when $t \rightarrow +\infty$

Numerical study of the blowup/global existence dichotomy for the focusing cubic nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation

We present some numerical findings concerning the nature of the blowup vs. global existence dichotomy for the focusing cubic nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation in three dimensions for radial data. The context of this study is provided by the classical paper by Payne, Sattinger from 1975, as well as the recent work by K. Nakanishi, and the second author arXiv:1005.4894. Specifically, we numerically investigate the boundary of the forward scattering region. At this point we do not have sufficient numerical evidence that might indicate whether or not the boundary remains a smooth manifold for general energies. In this updated version we include some fine-scale computations that reveal more complicated structures than one might expect.Comment: 30 images. In this updated we include results that were obtained by means of the CRAY XT5 supercomputer at the NICS, the National Institute of Computational Sciences at Oakridge Labs, Tennessee, which is part of the TeraGrid. Support by the NSF through TG-DMS110003 is gratefully acknowledge

Statistical mechanics of general discrete nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger models: Localization transition and its relevance for Klein-Gordon lattices

We extend earlier work [Phys.Rev.Lett. 84, 3740 (2000)] on the statistical mechanics of the cubic one-dimensional discrete nonlinear Schrodinger (DNLS) equation to a more general class of models, including higher dimensionalities and nonlinearities of arbitrary degree. These extensions are physically motivated by the desire to describe situations with an excitation threshold for creation of localized excitations, as well as by recent work suggesting non-cubic DNLS models to describe Bose-Einstein condensates in deep optical lattices, taking into account the effective condensate dimensionality. Considering ensembles of initial conditions with given values of the two conserved quantities, norm and Hamiltonian, we calculate analytically the boundary of the 'normal' Gibbsian regime corresponding to infinite temperature, and perform numerical simulations to illuminate the nature of the localization dynamics outside this regime for various cases. Furthermore, we show quantitatively how this DNLS localization transition manifests itself for small-amplitude oscillations in generic Klein-Gordon lattices of weakly coupled anharmonic oscillators (in which energy is the only conserved quantity), and determine conditions for existence of persistent energy localization over large time scales.Comment: to be published in Physical Review

Translationally invariant nonlinear Schrodinger lattices

Persistence of stationary and traveling single-humped localized solutions in the spatial discretizations of the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation is addressed. The discrete NLS equation with the most general cubic polynomial function is considered. Constraints on the nonlinear function are found from the condition that the second-order difference equation for stationary solutions can be reduced to the first-order difference map. The discrete NLS equation with such an exceptional nonlinear function is shown to have a conserved momentum but admits no standard Hamiltonian structure. It is proved that the reduction to the first-order difference map gives a sufficient condition for existence of translationally invariant single-humped stationary solutions and a necessary condition for existence of single-humped traveling solutions. Other constraints on the nonlinear function are found from the condition that the differential advance-delay equation for traveling solutions admits a reduction to an integrable normal form given by a third-order differential equation. This reduction also gives a necessary condition for existence of single-humped traveling solutions. The nonlinear function which admits both reductions defines a two-parameter family of discrete NLS equations which generalizes the integrable Ablowitz--Ladik lattice.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figure

Persistency of Analyticity for Nonlinear Wave Equations: An Energy-like Approach

We study the persistence of the Gevrey class regularity of solutions to nonlinear wave equations with real analytic nonlinearity. Specifically, it is proven that the solution remains in a Gevrey class, with respect to some of its spatial variables, during its whole life-span, provided the initial data is from the same Gevrey class with respect to these spatial variables. In addition, for the special Gevrey class of analytic functions, we find a lower bound for the radius of the spatial analyticity of the solution that might shrink either algebraically or exponentially, in time, depending on the structure of the nonlinearity. The standard $L^2$ theory for the Gevrey class regularity is employed; we also employ energy-like methods for a generalized version of Gevrey classes based on the $\ell^1$ norm of Fourier transforms (Wiener algebra). After careful comparisons, we observe an indication that the $\ell^1$ approach provides a better lower bound for the radius of analyticity of the solutions than the $L^2$ approach. We present our results in the case of period boundary conditions, however, by employing exactly the same tools and proofs one can obtain similar results for the nonlinear wave equations and the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, with real analytic nonlinearity, in certain domains and manifolds without physical boundaries, such as the whole space $\mathbb{R}^n$, or on the sphere $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$

Nonexistence of small, odd breathers for a class of nonlinear wave equations

In this note, we show that for a large class of nonlinear wave equations with odd nonlinearities, any globally defined odd solution which is small in the energy space decays to $0$ in the local energy norm. In particular, this result shows nonexistence of small, odd breathers for some classical nonlinear Klein Gordon equations such as the sine Gordon equation and $\phi^4$ and $\phi^6$ models. It also partially answers a question of Soffer and Weinstein in \cite[p. 19]{MR1681113} about nonexistence of breathers for the cubic NLKG in dimension one