Nonlinear Breathing-like Localized Modes in C60 Nanocrystals

We study the dynamics of nanocrystals composed of C60 fullerene molecules. We demonstrate that such structures can support long-lived strongly localized nonlinear oscillatory modes, which resemble discrete breathers in simple lattices. We reveal that at room temperatures the lifetime of such nonlinear localized modes may exceed tens of picoseconds; this suggests that C60 nanoclusters should demonstrate anomalously slow thermal relaxation when the temperature gradient decays in accord to a power law, thus violating the Cattaneo-Vernotte law of thermal conductivity.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Heat Conduction in One-Dimensional chain of Hard Discs with Substrate Potential

Heat conduction of one-dimensional chain of equivalent rigid particles in the field of external on-site potential is considered. Zero diameters of the particles correspond to exactly integrable case with divergent heat conduction coefficient. By means of simple analytical model it is demonstrated that for any nonzero particle size the integrability is violated and the heat conduction coefficient converges. The result of the analytical computation is verified by means of numerical simulation in a plausible diapason of parameters and good agreement is observedComment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Non-stationary heat conduction in one-dimensional chains with conserved momentum

The Letter addresses the relationship between hyperbolic equations of heat conduction and microscopic models of dielectrics. Effects of the non-stationary heat conduction are investigated in two one-dimensional models with conserved momentum: Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) chain and chain of rotators (CR). These models belong to different universality classes with respect to stationary heat conduction. Direct numeric simulations reveal in both models a crossover from oscillatory decay of short-wave perturbations of the temperature field to smooth diffusive decay of the long-wave perturbations. Such behavior is inconsistent with parabolic Fourier equation of the heat conduction. The crossover wavelength decreases with increase of average temperature in both models. For the FPU model the lowest order hyperbolic Cattaneo-Vernotte equation for the non-stationary heat conduction is not applicable, since no unique relaxation time can be determined.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Normal heat conductivity in two-dimensional scalar lattices

The paper revisits recent counterintuitive results on divergence of heat conduction coefficient in two-dimensional lattices. It was reported that in certain lattices with on-site potential, for which one-dimensional chain has convergent conductivity, for the 2D case it turns out to diverge. We demonstrate that this conclusion is an artifact caused by insufficient size of the simulated system. To overcome computational restrictions, a ribbon of relatively small width is simulated instead of the square specimen. It is further demonstrated that the heat conduction coefficient in the "long" direction of the ribbon ceases to depend on the width, as the latter achieves only 10 to 20 interparticle distances. So, one can consider the dynamics of much longer systems, than in the traditional setting, and still can gain a reliable information regarding the 2D lattice. It turns out that for all considered models, for which the conductivity is convergent in the 1D case, it is indeed convergent in the 2D case. In the same time, however, the length of the system, necessary to reveal the convergence in the 2D case, may be much bigger than in its 1D counterpart.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Lattice stretching bistability and dynamic heterogeneity

A simple one-dimensional lattice model is suggested to describe the experimentally observed plateau in force-stretching diagrams for some macromolecules. This chain model involves the nearest-neighbor interaction of a Morse-like potential (required to have a saturation branch) and an harmonic second-neighbor coupling. Under an external stretching applied t o the chain ends, the intersite Morse-like potential results in the appearance of a double-well potential within each chain monomer, whereas the interaction between the second neighbors provide s a homogeneous bistable (degenerate) ground state, at least within a certain part of the chain. As a result, different conformational changes occur in the chain under the external forcing. The transition regions between these conformations are described as topological solitons. With a strong second-neighbor interaction, the solitons describe the transition between the bistable ground states. However, the key point of the model is the appearance of a heterogenous structure, when the second-neighbor coupling is sufficiently weak. In this case, a part of the chain has short bonds with a single-well potential, whereas the complementary part admits strongly stretched bonds with a double-well potential. This case allows us to explain the existence of a plateau in the force-stretching diagram for DNA and alpha-helix protein. Finally, the soliton dynamics are studied in detail.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. E, 13 figure