title: A quantitative approach to soliton instability.
abstract: We present an approach for instabilities of solitons that is based on the spectrum of a fourth-order linearized operator. Unlike the standard approach which is based on the slope (Vakhitov-Kolokolov) condition, this approach provides the quantitative value of the instability rate and the qualitative nature of the instability dynamics.
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, California 95343, USA. bilan@ucmerced.edu
authors.forename: Boaz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ilan
authors.forename: Yonatan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sivan
authors.forename: Gadi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fibich