Obtaining Breathers in Nonlinear Hamiltonian Lattices

We present a numerical method for obtaining high-accuracy numerical solutions of spatially localized time-periodic excitations on a nonlinear Hamiltonian lattice. We compare these results with analytical considerations of the spatial decay. We show that nonlinear contributions have to be considered, and obtain very good agreement between the latter and the numerical results. We discuss further applications of the method and results.Comment: 21 pages (LaTeX), 8 figures in ps-files, tar-compressed uuencoded file, Physical Review E, in pres

Breathers on lattices with long range interaction

We analyze the properties of breathers (time periodic spatially localized solutions) on chains in the presence of algebraically decaying interactions $1/r^s$. We find that the spatial decay of a breather shows a crossover from exponential (short distances) to algebraic (large distances) decay. We calculate the crossover distance as a function of $s$ and the energy of the breather. Next we show that the results on energy thresholds obtained for short range interactions remain valid for $s>3$ and that for $s < 3$ (anomalous dispersion at the band edge) nonzero thresholds occur for cases where the short range interaction system would yield zero threshold values.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, PRB Rapid Comm. October 199

On the Existence of Localized Excitations in Nonlinear Hamiltonian Lattices

We consider time-periodic nonlinear localized excitations (NLEs) on one-dimensional translationally invariant Hamiltonian lattices with arbitrary finite interaction range and arbitrary finite number of degrees of freedom per unit cell. We analyse a mapping of the Fourier coefficients of the NLE solution. NLEs correspond to homoclinic points in the phase space of this map. Using dimensionality properties of separatrix manifolds of the mapping we show the persistence of NLE solutions under perturbations of the system, provided NLEs exist for the given system. For a class of nonintegrable Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chains we rigorously prove the existence of NLE solutions.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures will be mailed upon request (Phys. Rev. E, in press

Acoustic breathers in two-dimensional lattices

The existence of breathers (time-periodic and spatially localized lattice vibrations) is well established for i) systems without acoustic phonon branches and ii) systems with acoustic phonons, but also with additional symmetries preventing the occurence of strains (dc terms) in the breather solution. The case of coexistence of strains and acoustic phonon branches is solved (for simple models) only for one-dimensional lattices. We calculate breather solutions for a two-dimensional lattice with one acoustic phonon branch. We start from the easy-to-handle case of a system with homogeneous (anharmonic) interaction potentials. We then easily continue the zero-strain breather solution into the model sector with additional quadratic and cubic potential terms with the help of a generalized Newton method. The lattice size is $70\times 70$. The breather continues to exist, but is dressed with a strain field. In contrast to the ac breather components, which decay exponentially in space, the strain field (which has dipole symmetry) should decay like $1/r^a, a=2$. On our rather small lattice we find an exponent $a\approx 1.85$

Discrete breathers in systems with homogeneous potentials - analytic solutions

We construct lattice Hamiltonians with homogeneous interaction potentials which allow for explicit breather solutions. Especially we obtain exponentially localized solutions for $d$-dimensional lattices with $d=2,3$.Comment: 10 page

Quantum dynamics of localized excitations in a symmetric trimer molecule

We study the time evolution of localized (local bond) excitations in a symmetric quantum trimer molecule. We relate the dynamical properties of localized excitations such as their spectral intensity and their temporal evolution (survival probability and tunneling of bosons) to their degree of overlap with quantum tunneling pair states. We report on the existence of degeneracy points in the trimer eigenvalue spectrum for specific values of parameters due to avoided crossings between tunneling pair states and additional states. The tunneling of localized excitations which overlap with these degenerate states is suppressed on all times. As a result local bond excitations may be strongly localized forever, similar to their classical counterparts.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures. Improved version with more discussions. Some figures were replaced for better understanding. Accepted in Phys. Rev.

Energy thresholds for discrete breathers in one-, two- and three-dimensional lattices

Discrete breathers are time-periodic, spatially localized solutions of equations of motion for classical degrees of freedom interacting on a lattice. They come in one-parameter families. We report on studies of energy properties of breather families in one-, two- and three-dimensional lattices. We show that breather energies have a positive lower bound if the lattice dimension of a given nonlinear lattice is greater than or equal to a certain critical value. These findings could be important for the experimental detection of discrete breathers.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures (ps), Physical Review Letters, in prin

The phase plane of moving discrete breathers

We study anharmonic localization in a periodic five atom chain with quadratic-quartic spring potential. We use discrete symmetries to eliminate the degeneracies of the harmonic chain and easily find periodic orbits. We apply linear stability analysis to measure the frequency of phonon-like disturbances in the presence of breathers and to analyze the instabilities of breathers. We visualize the phase plane of breather motion directly and develop a technique for exciting pinned and moving breathers. We observe long-lived breathers that move chaotically and a global transition to chaos that prevents forming moving breathers at high energies.Comment: 8 pages text, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters. See http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~houle/localization

Edge-localized states in quantum one-dimensional lattices

In one-dimensional quantum lattice models with open boundaries, we find and study localization at the lattice edge. We show that edge-localized eigenstates can be found in both bosonic and fermionic systems, specifically, in the Bose-Hubbard model with on-site interactions and in the spinless fermion model with nearest-neighbor interactions. We characterize the localization through spectral studies via numerical diagonalization and perturbation theory, through considerations of the eigenfunctions, and through the study of explicit time evolution. We concentrate on few-particle systems, showing how more complicated edge states appear as the number of particles is increased.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figure

Discrete breathers in classical spin lattices

Discrete breathers (nonlinear localised modes) have been shown to exist in various nonlinear Hamiltonian lattice systems. In the present paper we study the dynamics of classical spins interacting via Heisenberg exchange on spatial $d$-dimensional lattices (with and without the presence of single-ion anisotropy). We show that discrete breathers exist for cases when the continuum theory does not allow for their presence (easy-axis ferromagnets with anisotropic exchange and easy-plane ferromagnets). We prove the existence of localised excitations using the implicit function theorem and obtain necessary conditions for their existence. The most interesting case is the easy-plane one which yields excitations with locally tilted magnetisation. There is no continuum analogue for such a solution and there exists an energy threshold for it, which we have estimated analytically. We support our analytical results with numerical high-precision computations, including also a stability analysis for the excitations.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure