Pulse propagation in chains with nonlinear interactions.
Pulse propagation in nonlinear arrays continues to be of interest because it provides a possible mechanism for energy transfer with little dispersion. Here we show that common measures of pulse dispersion might be misleading; in strongly anharmonic systems they tend to reflect a succession of extremely narrow pulses traveling at decreasing velocities rather than the actual width of a single pulse. We present analytic estimates for the fraction of the initial energy that travels in the leading pulses. We also provide analytic predictions for the leading pulse velocity in a Fermi-Pasta-Ulam beta chain.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0340, USA.
Alexandre
A
Rosas
Katja
K
Lindenberg