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Breathers in oscillator chains with Hertzian interactions

We prove nonexistence of breathers (spatially localized and time-periodic oscillations) for a class of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattices representing an uncompressed chain of beads interacting via Hertz's contact forces. We then consider the setting in which an additional on-site potential is present, motivated by the Newton's cradle under the effect of gravity. Using both direct numerical computations and a simplified asymptotic model of the oscillator chain, the so-called discrete p-Schr\"odinger (DpS) equation, we show the existence of discrete breathers and study their spectral properties and mobility. Due to the fully nonlinear character of Hertzian interactions, breathers are found to be much more localized than in classical nonlinear lattices and their motion occurs with less dispersion. In addition, we study numerically the excitation of a traveling breather after an impact at one end of a semi-infinite chain. This case is well described by the DpS equation when local oscillations are faster than binary collisions, a situation occuring e.g. in chains of stiff cantilevers decorated by spherical beads. When a hard anharmonic part is added to the local potential, a new type of traveling breather emerges, showing spontaneous direction-reversing in a spatially homogeneous system. Finally, the interaction of a moving breather with a point defect is also considered in the cradle system. Almost total breather reflections are observed at sufficiently high defect sizes, suggesting potential applications of such systems as shock wave reflectors.

We explore a recently proposed locally resonant granular system bearing harmonic internal resonators in a chain of beads interacting via Hertzian elastic contacts. In this system, we propose the existence of two types of configurations: (a) small-amplitude periodic traveling waves and (b) dark-breather solutions, i.e. exponentially localized, time-periodic states mounted on top of a non-vanishing background. A remarkable feature distinguishing our results from other settings where dark breathers are observed is the complete absence of precompression in the system, i.e. the absence of a linear spectral band. We also identify conditions under which the system admits long-lived bright breather solutions. Our results are obtained by means of an asymptotic reduction to a suitably modified version of the so-called discrete p-Schrodinger (DpS) equation, which is established as controllably approximating the solutions of the original system for large but finite times (under suitable assumptions on the solution amplitude and the resonator mass). The findings are also corroborated by detailed numerical computations. Long-lived bright breathers are proved to exist over long but finite times, after which numerical simulations indicate that the breathers disintegrate. In line with these results, we prove that the only exact time-periodic bright breathers consist of trivial linear oscillations, without contact interactions between discrete elements.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0951-7715/29/11/3496/pdf

Strongly nonlinear waves in locally resonant granular chains

Small-amplitude weakly coupled oscillators of the Klein–Gordon lattices are approximated by equations of the discrete nonlinear Schrodinger type. We show how to justify this approximation by two methods, which have been very popular in the recent literature. The first method relies on a priori energy estimates and multi-scale decompositions. The second method is based on a resonant normal form theorem. We show that although the two methods are different in the implementation, they produce equivalent results as the end product. We also discuss the applications of the discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation in the context of existence and stability of breathers of the Klein–Gordon lattice.

Approximation of small-amplitude weakly coupled oscillators by discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations

We consider the discrete p-Schr\"odinger (DpS) equation, which approximates small amplitude oscillations in chains of oscillators with fully-nonlinear nearest-neighbors interactions of order alpha = p-1 >1. Using a mapping approach, we prove the existence of breather solutions of the DpS equation with even- or odd-parity reflectional symmetries. We derive in addition analytical approximations for the breather profiles and the corresponding intersecting stable and unstable manifolds, valid on a whole range of nonlinearity orders alpha. In the limit of weak nonlinearity (alpha --> 1^+), we introduce a continuum limit connecting the stationary DpS and logarithmic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations. In this limit, breathers correspond asymptotically to Gaussian homoclinic solutions. We numerically analyze the stability properties of breather solutions depending on their even- or odd-parity symmetry. A perturbation of an unstable breather generally results in a translational motion (traveling breather) when alpha is close to unity, whereas pinning becomes predominant for larger values of alpha.

Breather solutions of the discrete p-Schr\"odinger equation

We investigate the dynamics of a chain of oscillators coupled by fully nonlinear interaction potentials This class of models includes Newton's cradle with Hertzian contact interactions between neighbors By means of multiple-scale analysis, we give a rigorous asymptotic description of small amplitude solutions over large times The envelope equation leading to approximate solutions is a discrete $p$-Schrodinger equation Our results include the existence of long-lived breather solutions to the original model For a large class of localized initial conditions, we also estimate the maximal decay of small amplitude solutions over long times

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From Newton's Cradle to the Discrete $p$-Schrödinger Equation

We investigate the dynamics of a chain of oscillators coupled by fully-nonlinear interaction potentials. This class of models includes Newton's cradle with Hertzian contact interactions between neighbors. By means of multiple-scale analysis, we give a rigorous asymptotic description of small amplitude solutions over large times. The envelope equation leading to approximate solutions is a discrete p-Schrodinger equation. Our results include the existence of long-lived breather solutions to the original model. For a large class of localized initial conditions, we also estimate the maximal decay of small amplitude solutions over long times.

Guillaume James

Papers

From Newton's Cradle to the Discrete $p$-Schrödinger Equation

From Newton's cradle to the discrete p-Schr\"odinger equation