June 19, 2006
Discrete breathers are time-periodic, spatially localized solutions of the equations of motion for a system of classical degrees of freedom interacting on a lattice. Such solutions are investigated for a diatomic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain, i. e., a chain of alternate heavy and light masses coupled by anharmonic forces. For hard interaction potentials, discrete breathers in this model are known to exist either as ``optic breathers'' with frequencies above the optic band, or as ``acoustic breathers'' with frequencies in the gap between the acoustic and the optic band. In this paper, bifurcations between different types of discrete breathers are found numerically, with the mass ratio m and the breather frequency omega as bifurcation parameters. We identify a period tripling bifurcation around optic breathers, which leads to new breather solutions with frequencies in the gap, and a second local bifurcation around acoustic breathers. These results provide new breather solutions of the FPU system which interpolate between the classical acoustic and optic modes. The two bifurcation lines originate from a particular ``corner'' in parameter space (omega,m). As parameters lie near this corner, we prove by means of a center manifold reduction that small amplitude solutions can be described by a four-dimensional reversible map. This allows us to derive formally a continuum limit differential equation which characterizes at leading order the numerically observed bifurcations.
Similar papers 1
October 22, 2007
We consider an infinite chain of particles linearly coupled to their nearest neighbours and subject to an anharmonic local potential. The chain is assumed weakly inhomogeneous. We look for small amplitude discrete breathers. The problem is reformulated as a nonautonomous recurrence in a space of time-periodic functions, where the dynamics is considered along the discrete spatial coordinate. We show that small amplitude oscillations are determined by finite-dimensional nonauto...
March 20, 2020
We will present a survey of low energy periodic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chains with leading idea the "breaking of symmetry". The classical periodic FPU-chain (equal masses for all particles) was analysed by Rink in 2001 with main conclusions that the normal form of the beta-chain is always integrable and that in many cases this also holds for the alfa-chain. The FPU-chain with alternating masses already shows a certain breaking of symmetry. Three exact families of periodic solutions...
July 28, 2022
We consider a previously experimentally realized discrete model that describes a mechanical metamaterial consisting of a chain of pairs of rigid units connected by flexible hinges. Upon analyzing the linear band structure of the model, we identify parameter regimes in which this system may possess discrete breather solutions with frequencies inside the gap between optical and acoustic dispersion bands. We compute numerically exact solutions of this type for several different ...
June 16, 2003
In this paper we study the existence and linear stability of bright and dark breathers in one-dimensional FPU lattices. On the one hand, we test the range of validity of a recent breathers existence proof [G. James, {\em C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris}, 332, Ser. 1, pp. 581 (2001)] using numerical computations. Approximate analytical expressions for small amplitude bright and dark breathers are found to fit very well exact numerical solutions even far from the top of the phonon band....
December 5, 2001
Collision process between breather and moving kink-soliton is investigated both analytically and numerically in Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) chains. As it is shown by both analytical and numerical consideration low amplitude breathers and soft kinks retain their shapes after interaction. Low amplitude breather only changes the location after collision and remains static. As the numerical simulations show, the shift of its position is proportional to the stiffness of the kink-solito...
October 1, 2004
The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) paradox was observed fifty years ago. The surprising finding was a localization of energy in the reciprocal q-space of a model with discrete translational invariance, despite the presence of interaction between extended normal modes. Thirty three years later Takeno, Kisoda and Sievers reported on the observation of energy localization in real space for the same class of FPU models, which is as surprising since these excitations, called discrete brea...
November 17, 2021
In the present work we revisit the existence, stability and dynamical properties of moving discrete breathers in $\beta$-FPU lattices. On the existence side, we propose a numerical procedure, based on a continuation along a sequence of velocities, that allows to systematically construct breathers traveling more than one lattice site per period. On the stability side, we explore the stability spectrum of the obtained waveforms via Floquet analysis and connect it to the energy-...
August 27, 2020
The paper addresses compact oscillatory states (compact breathers) in translationally-invariant lattices with flat dispersion bands. The compact breathers appear in such systems even in the linear approximation. If the interactions are nonlinear, but comply with the flat-band symmetry, the compact breather solutions exist, but can lose their stability for certain parameter values. As benchmark nonlinear potentials, we use the $\beta$-FPU (Fermi-Pasta-Ulam) and vibro-impact mo...
August 31, 2005
The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) problem 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, exponenti...
April 17, 1997
Nonlinear classical Hamiltonian lattices exhibit generic solutions in the form of discrete breathers. These solutions are time-periodic and (typically exponentially) localized in space. The lattices exhibit discrete translational symmetry. Discrete breathers are not confined to certain lattice dimensions. Necessary ingredients for their occurence are the existence of upper bounds on the phonon spectrum (of small fluctuations around the groundstate) of the system as well as th...