Discrete breathers in a mechanical metamaterial.

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 parameter regimes and investigate their properties and stability. Our findings demonstrate that upon appropriate parameter tuning within experimentally tractable ranges, the system exhibits a plethora of discrete breathers, with multiple branches of solutions that feature period-doubling and symmetry-breaking bifurcations, in addition to other mechanisms of stability change such as saddle-center and Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcations. The relevant stability analysis is corroborated by direct numerical computations examining the dynamical properties of the system and paving the way for potential further experimental exploration of this rich nonlinear dynamical lattice setting.

Rarefactive lattice solitary waves with high-energy sonic limit.

We compute rarefactive solitary wave solutions in a nonlinear lattice with nearest-neighbor interaction forces that are sublinear near the undeformed state. This setting includes bistable bonds governed by a double-well potential. In contrast to the prototypical Korteweg-de Vries-type delocalization, the obtained solutions feature a nontrivial sonic limit (Chapman-Jouguet regime) with nonzero energy and algebraic decay at infinity. In the bistable case the waves are strongly localized and have high energy over the entire velocity range. Direct numerical simulations suggest stability of the computed solitary waves. We consider several quasicontinuum models that mimic some features of the obtained solutions, including the nontrivial nature of the sonic limit, but fail to accurately approximate their core structure for all velocities in the bistable regime.

An energy-based stability criterion for solitary travelling waves in Hamiltonian lattices.

In this work, we revisit a criterion, originally proposed in Friesecke & Pego (Friesecke & Pego 2004 Nonlinearity17, 207-227. (doi:10.1088/0951715/17/1/013)), for the stability of solitary travelling waves in Hamiltonian, infinite-dimensional lattice dynamical systems. We discuss the implications of this criterion from the point of view of stability theory, both at the level of the spectral analysis of the advance-delay differential equations in the co-travelling frame, as well as at that of the Floquet problem arising when considering the travelling wave as a periodic orbit modulo shift. We establish the correspondence of these perspectives for the pertinent eigenvalue and Floquet multiplier and provide explicit expressions for their dependence on the velocity of the travelling wave in the vicinity of the critical point. Numerical results are used to corroborate the relevant predictions in two different models, where the stability may change twice. Some extensions, generalizations and future directions of this investigation are also discussed.This article is part of the theme issue 'Stability of nonlinear waves and patterns and related topics'.

Unifying perspective: Solitary traveling waves as discrete breathers in Hamiltonian lattices and energy criteria for their stability.

In this work, we provide two complementary perspectives for the (spectral) stability of solitary traveling waves in Hamiltonian nonlinear dynamical lattices, of which the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam and the Toda lattice are prototypical examples. One is as an eigenvalue problem for a stationary solution in a cotraveling frame, while the other is as a periodic orbit modulo shifts. We connect the eigenvalues of the former with the Floquet multipliers of the latter and using this formulation derive an energy-based spectral stability criterion. It states that a sufficient (but not necessary) condition for a change in the wave stability occurs when the functional dependence of the energy (Hamiltonian) H of the model on the wave velocity c changes its monotonicity. Moreover, near the critical velocity where the change of stability occurs, we provide an explicit leading-order computation of the unstable eigenvalues, based on the second derivative of the Hamiltonian H^{''}(c_{0}) evaluated at the critical velocity c_{0}. We corroborate this conclusion with a series of analytically and numerically tractable examples and discuss its parallels with a recent energy-based criterion for the stability of discrete breathers.

Solitary waves in diatomic chains.

We consider the mechanism of formation of isolated localized wave structures in the diatomic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) model. Using a singular multiscale asymptotic analysis in the limit of high mass mismatch between the alternating elements, we obtain the typical slow-fast time scale separation and formulate the Fredholm orthogonality condition approximating a sequence of mass ratios supporting the formation of solitary waves in the general type of diatomic FPU models. This condition is made explicit in the case of a diatomic Toda lattice. Results of numerical integration of the full diatomic Toda lattice equations confirm the formation of these genuinely localized wave structures at special values of the mass ratio that are close to the analytical predictions when the ratio is sufficiently small.

Solitary waves in a nonintegrable Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain.

We present a family of exact solutions describing discrete solitary waves in a nonintegrable Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain. The family is sufficiently rich to cover the whole spectrum of known behaviors from delocalized quasicontinuum waves moving with near-sonic velocities to highly localized anticontinuum excitations with only one particle moving at a time.