The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) paradox consists of the nonequipartition of energy
among normal modes of a weakly anharmonic atomic chain model. In the harmonic
limit each normal mode corresponds to a periodic orbit in phase space and is
characterized by its wave number q. We continue normal modes from the
harmonic limit into the FPU parameter regime and obtain persistence of these
periodic orbits, termed here q-Breathers (QB). They are characterized by time
periodicity, exponential localization in the q-space of normal modes and
linear stability up to a size-dependent threshold amplitude. Trajectories
computed in the original FPU setting are perturbations around these exact QB
solutions. The QB concept is applicable to other nonlinear lattices as well.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure