Backlund transformations and knots of constant torsion

The Backlund transformation for pseudospherical surfaces, which is equivalent to that of the sine-Gordon equation, can be restricted to give a transformation on space curves that preserves constant torsion. We study its effects on closed curves (in particular, elastic rods) that generate multiphase solutions for the vortex filament flow (also known as the Localized Induction Equation). In doing so, we obtain analytic constant-torsion representatives for a large number of knot types.Comment: AMSTeX, 29 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses BoxedEPSF.tex (all necessary files are included in backlund.tar.gz

Finite-gap Solutions of the Vortex Filament Equation: Isoperiodic Deformations

We study the topology of quasiperiodic solutions of the vortex filament equation in a neighborhood of multiply covered circles. We construct these solutions by means of a sequence of isoperiodic deformations, at each step of which a real double point is "unpinched" to produce a new pair of branch points and therefore a solution of higher genus. We prove that every step in this process corresponds to a cabling operation on the previous curve, and we provide a labelling scheme that matches the deformation data with the knot type of the resulting filament.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figures; submitted to Journal of Nonlinear Scienc

Topological Aspect of Knotted Vortex Filaments in Excitable Media

Scroll waves exist ubiquitously in three-dimensional excitable media. It's rotation center can be regarded as a topological object called vortex filament. In three-dimensional space, the vortex filaments usually form closed loops, and even linked and knotted. In this letter, we give a rigorous topological description of knotted vortex filaments. By using the $\phi$-mapping topological current theory, we rewrite the topological current form of the charge density of vortex filaments and use this topological current we reveal that the Hopf invariant of vortex filaments is just the sum of the linking and self-linking numbers of the knotted vortex filaments. We think that the precise expression of the Hopf invariant may imply a new topological constraint on knotted vortex filaments.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, Accepted by Chin. Phys. Let

A Bi-Hamiltonian Structure for the Integrable, Discrete Non-Linear Schrodinger System

This paper shows that the Ablowitz-Ladik hierarchy of equations (a well-known integrable discretization of the Non-linear Schrodinger system) can be explicitly viewed as a hierarchy of commuting flows which: (a) are Hamiltonian with respect to both a standard, local Poisson operator J and a new non-local, skew, almost Poisson operator K, on the appropriate space; (b) can be recursively generated from a recursion operator R (obtained by composing K and the inverse of J.) In addition, the proof of these facts relies upon two new pivotal resolvent identities which suggest a general method for uncovering bi-Hamiltonian structures for other families of discrete, integrable equations.Comment: 33 page

Localization and Coherence in Nonintegrable Systems

We study the irreversible dynamics of nonlinear, nonintegrable Hamiltonian oscillator chains approaching their statistical asympotic states. In systems constrained by more than one conserved quantity, the partitioning of the conserved quantities leads naturally to localized and coherent structures. If the phase space is compact, the final equilibrium state is governed by entropy maximization and the final coherent structures are stable lumps. In systems where the phase space is not compact, the coherent structures can be collapses represented in phase space by a heteroclinic connection to infinity.Comment: 41 pages, 15 figure

Numerical instability of the Akhmediev breather and a finite-gap model of it

In this paper we study the numerical instabilities of the NLS Akhmediev breather, the simplest space periodic, one-mode perturbation of the unstable background, limiting our considerations to the simplest case of one unstable mode. In agreement with recent theoretical findings of the authors, in the situation in which the round-off errors are negligible with respect to the perturbations due to the discrete scheme used in the numerical experiments, the split-step Fourier method (SSFM), the numerical output is well-described by a suitable genus 2 finite-gap solution of NLS. This solution can be written in terms of different elementary functions in different time regions and, ultimately, it shows an exact recurrence of rogue waves described, at each appearance, by the Akhmediev breather. We discover a remarkable empirical formula connecting the recurrence time with the number of time steps used in the SSFM and, via our recent theoretical findings, we establish that the SSFM opens up a vertical unstable gap whose length can be computed with high accuracy, and is proportional to the inverse of the square of the number of time steps used in the SSFM. This neat picture essentially changes when the round-off error is sufficiently large. Indeed experiments in standard double precision show serious instabilities in both the periods and phases of the recurrence. In contrast with it, as predicted by the theory, replacing the exact Akhmediev Cauchy datum by its first harmonic approximation, we only slightly modify the numerical output. Let us also remark, that the first rogue wave appearance is completely stable in all experiments and is in perfect agreement with the Akhmediev formula and with the theoretical prediction in terms of the Cauchy data.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, Formula (30) at page 11 was corrected, arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1707.0565

Giant Magnons and Singular Curves

We obtain the giant magnon of Hofman-Maldacena and its dyonic generalisation on R x S^3 < AdS_5 x S^5 from the general elliptic finite-gap solution by degenerating its elliptic spectral curve into a singular curve. This alternate description of giant magnons as finite-gap solutions associated to singular curves is related through a symplectic transformation to their already established description in terms of condensate cuts developed in hep-th/0606145.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, minor change in abstrac

The branch processes of vortex filaments and Hopf Invariant Constraint on Scroll Wave

In this paper, by making use of Duan's topological current theory, the evolution of the vortex filaments in excitable media is discussed in detail. The vortex filaments are found generating or annihilating at the limit points and encountering, splitting, or merging at the bifurcation points of a complex function $Z(\vec{x},t)$. It is also shown that the Hopf invariant of knotted scroll wave filaments is preserved in the branch processes (splitting, merging, or encountering) during the evolution of these knotted scroll wave filaments. Furthermore, it also revealed that the "exclusion principle" in some chemical media is just the special case of the Hopf invariant constraint, and during the branch processes the "exclusion principle" is also protected by topology.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure