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

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

Slow Relaxation and Phase Space Properties of a Conservative System with Many Degrees of Freedom

We study the one-dimensional discrete $\Phi^4$ model. We compare two equilibrium properties by use of molecular dynamics simulations: the Lyapunov spectrum and the time dependence of local correlation functions. Both properties imply the existence of a dynamical crossover of the system at the same temperature. This correlation holds for two rather different regimes of the system - the displacive and intermediate coupling regimes. Our results imply a deep connection between slowing down of relaxations and phase space properties of complex systems.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 10 Figures available upon request (SF), Phys. Rev. E, accepted for publicatio

Spreading of wave packets in disordered systems with tunable nonlinearity

We study the spreading of single-site excitations in one-dimensional disordered Klein-Gordon chains with tunable nonlinearity $|u_{l}|^{\sigma} u_{l}$ for different values of $\sigma$. We perform extensive numerical simulations where wave packets are evolved a) without and, b) with dephasing in normal mode space. Subdiffusive spreading is observed with the second moment of wave packets growing as $t^{\alpha}$. The dependence of the numerically computed exponent $\alpha$ on $\sigma$ is in very good agreement with our theoretical predictions both for the evolution of the wave packet with and without dephasing (for $\sigma \geq 2$ in the latter case). We discuss evidence of the existence of a regime of strong chaos, and observe destruction of Anderson localization in the packet tails for small values of $\sigma$.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Interaction-induced connectivity of disordered two-particle states

We study the interaction-induced connectivity in the Fock space of two particles in a disordered one-dimensional potential. Recent computational studies showed that the largest localization length $\xi_2$ of two interacting particles in a weakly random tight binding chain is increasing unexpectedly slow relative to the single particle localization length $\xi_1$, questioning previous scaling estimates. We show this to be a consequence of the approximate restoring of momentum conservation of weakly localized single particle eigenstates, and disorder-induced phase shifts for partially overlapping states. The leading resonant links appear among states which share the same energy and momentum. We substantiate our analytical approach by computational studies for up to $\xi_1 = 1000$. A potential nontrivial scaling regime sets in for $\xi_1 \approx 400$, way beyond all previous numerical attacks.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Isochronism and tangent bifurcation of band edge modes in Hamiltonian lattices

In {\em Physica D} {\bf 91}, 223 (1996), results were obtained regarding the tangent bifurcation of the band edge modes ($q=0,\pi$) of nonlinear Hamiltonian lattices made of $N$ coupled oscillators. Introducing the concept of {\em partial isochronism} which characterises the way the frequency of a mode, $\omega$, depends on its energy, $\epsilon$, we generalize these results and show how the bifurcation energies of these modes are intimately connected to their degree of isochronism. In particular we prove that in a lattice of coupled purely isochronous oscillators ($\omega(\epsilon)$ strictly constant), the in-phase mode ($q=0$) never undergoes a tangent bifurcation whereas the out-of-phase mode ($q=\pi$) does, provided the strength of the nonlinearity in the coupling is sufficient. We derive a discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation governing the slow modulations of small-amplitude band edge modes and show that its nonlinear exponent is proportional to the degree of isochronism of the corresponding orbits. This equation may be seen as a link between the tangent bifurcation of band edge modes and the possible emergence of localized modes such as discrete breathers.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur