1,350 research outputs found
Bifurcations of discrete breathers in a diatomic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain
Discrete breathers are time-periodic, spatially localized solutions of the
equations of motion for a system of classical degrees of freedom interacting on
a lattice. Such solutions are investigated for a diatomic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam
chain, i. e., a chain of alternate heavy and light masses coupled by anharmonic
forces. For hard interaction potentials, discrete breathers in this model are
known to exist either as ``optic breathers'' with frequencies above the optic
band, or as ``acoustic breathers'' with frequencies in the gap between the
acoustic and the optic band. In this paper, bifurcations between different
types of discrete breathers are found numerically, with the mass ratio m and
the breather frequency omega as bifurcation parameters. We identify a period
tripling bifurcation around optic breathers, which leads to new breather
solutions with frequencies in the gap, and a second local bifurcation around
acoustic breathers. These results provide new breather solutions of the FPU
system which interpolate between the classical acoustic and optic modes. The
two bifurcation lines originate from a particular ``corner'' in parameter space
(omega,m). As parameters lie near this corner, we prove by means of a center
manifold reduction that small amplitude solutions can be described by a
four-dimensional reversible map. This allows us to derive formally a continuum
limit differential equation which characterizes at leading order the
numerically observed bifurcations.Comment: 30 pages, 10 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
Intrinsic Energy Localization through Discrete Gap Breathers in One-Dimensional Diatomic Granular Crystals
We present a systematic study of the existence and stability of discrete
breathers that are spatially localized in the bulk of a one-dimensional chain
of compressed elastic beads that interact via Hertzian contact. The chain is
diatomic, consisting of a periodic arrangement of heavy and light spherical
particles. We examine two families of discrete gap breathers: (1) an unstable
discrete gap breather that is centered on a heavy particle and characterized by
a symmetric spatial energy profile and (2) a potentially stable discrete gap
breather that is centered on a light particle and is characterized by an
asymmetric spatial energy profile. We investigate their existence, structure,
and stability throughout the band gap of the linear spectrum and classify them
into four regimes: a regime near the lower optical band edge of the linear
spectrum, a moderately discrete regime, a strongly discrete regime that lies
deep within the band gap of the linearized version of the system, and a regime
near the upper acoustic band edge. We contrast discrete breathers in anharmonic
FPU-type diatomic chains with those in diatomic granular crystals, which have a
tensionless interaction potential between adjacent particles, and highlight in
that the asymmetric nature of the latter interaction potential may lead to a
form of hybrid bulk-surface localized solutions
Ultrashort pulses and short-pulse equations in dimensions
In this paper, we derive and study two versions of the short pulse equation
(SPE) in dimensions. Using Maxwell's equations as a starting point, and
suitable Kramers-Kronig formulas for the permittivity and permeability of the
medium, which are relevant, e.g., to left-handed metamaterials and dielectric
slab waveguides, we employ a multiple scales technique to obtain the relevant
models. General properties of the resulting -dimensional SPEs, including
fundamental conservation laws, as well as the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian
structure and numerical simulations for one- and two-dimensional initial data,
are presented. Ultrashort 1D breathers appear to be fairly robust, while rather
general two-dimensional localized initial conditions are transformed into
quasi-one-dimensional dispersing waveforms
Multibreathers in Klein-Gordon chains with interactions beyond nearest neighbors
We study the existence and stability of multibreathers in Klein-Gordon chains
with interactions that are not restricted to nearest neighbors. We provide a
general framework where such long range effects can be taken into consideration
for arbitrarily varying (as a function of the node distance) linear couplings
between arbitrary sets of neighbors in the chain. By examining special case
examples such as three-site breathers with next-nearest-neighbors, we find {\it
crucial} modifications to the nearest-neighbor picture of one-dimensional
oscillators being excited either in- or anti-phase. Configurations with
nontrivial phase profiles, arise, as well as spontaneous symmetry breaking
(pitchfork) bifurcations, when these states emerge from (or collide with) the
ones with standard (0 or ) phase difference profiles. Similar
bifurcations, both of the supercritical and of the subcritical type emerge when
examining four-site breathers with either next-nearest-neighbor or even
interactions with the three-nearest one-dimensional neighbors. The latter
setting can be thought of as a prototype for the two-dimensional building
block, namely a square of lattice nodes, which is also examined. Our analytical
predictions are found to be in very good agreement with numerical results
Time-Reversal of Nonlinear Waves - Applicability and Limitations
Time-reversal (TR) refocusing of waves is one of fundamental principles in
wave physics. Using the TR approach, "Time-reversal mirrors" can physically
create a time-reversed wave that exactly refocus back, in space and time, to
its original source regardless of the complexity of the medium as if time were
going backwards. Lately, laboratory experiments proved that this approach can
be applied not only in acoustics and electromagnetism but also in the field of
linear and nonlinear water waves. Studying the range of validity and
limitations of the TR approach may determine and quantify its range of
applicability in hydrodynamics. In this context, we report a numerical study of
hydrodynamic TR using a uni-directional numerical wave tank, implemented by the
nonlinear high-order spectral method, known to accurately model the physical
processes at play, beyond physical laboratory restrictions. The applicability
of the TR approach is assessed over a variety of hydrodynamic localized and
pulsating structures' configurations, pointing out the importance of high-order
dispersive and particularly nonlinear effects in the refocusing of hydrodynamic
stationary envelope solitons and breathers. We expect that the results may
motivate similar experiments in other nonlinear dispersive media and encourage
several applications with particular emphasis on the field of ocean
engineering.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures ; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Fluid
Spectral theory of soliton and breather gases for the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation
Solitons and breathers are localized solutions of integrable systems that can be viewed as “particles” of complex statistical objects called soliton and breather gases. In view of the growing evidence of their ubiquity in fluids and nonlinear optical media, these “integrable” gases present a fundamental interest for nonlinear physics. We develop an analytical theory of breather and soliton gases by considering a special, thermodynamic-type limit of the wave-number–frequency relations for multiphase (finite-gap) solutions of the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This limit is defined by the locus and the critical scaling of the band spectrum of the associated Zakharov-Shabat operator, and it yields the nonlinear dispersion relations for a spatially homogeneous breather or soliton gas, depending on the presence or absence of the “background” Stokes mode. The key quantity of interest is the density of states defining, in principle, all spectral and statistical properties of a soliton (breather) gas. The balance of terms in the nonlinear dispersion relations determines the nature of the gas: from an ideal gas of well separated, noninteracting breathers (solitons) to a special limiting state, which we term a breather (soliton) condensate, and whose properties are entirely determined by the pairwise interactions between breathers (solitons). For a nonhomogeneous breather gas, we derive a full set of kinetic equations describing the slow evolution of the density of states and of its carrier wave counterpart. The kinetic equation for soliton gas is recovered by collapsing the Stokes spectral band. A number of concrete examples of breather and soliton gases are considered, demonstrating the efficacy of the developed general theory with broad implications for nonlinear optics, superfluids, and oceanography. In particular, our work provides the theoretical underpinning for the recently observed remarkable connection of the soliton gas dynamics with the long-term evolution of spontaneous modulational instability
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