Discrete quantum breathers: what do we know about them?

Quantum breathers in Heisenberg ferromagnetic chains with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction

We present an analytical study on quantum breathers in one-dimensional ferromagnetic XXZ chains with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction by means of the time-dependent Hartree approximation and the semidiscrete multiple-scale method. The stationary localized single-boson wave functions are obtained and these analytical solutions are checked by numerical simulations. With such stationary localized single-boson wave functions, we construct quantum breather states. Furthermore, the role of the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction is discussed.

Quantized breather excitations of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattices

We have calculated the lowest energy quantized breather excitations of both the β and the α Fermi-Pasta-Ulam monoatomic lattices and the diatomic β lattice within the ladder approximation. While the classical breather excitations form continua, the quantized breather excitations form a discrete hierarchy labeled by a quantum number n. Although the number of phonons is not conserved, the breather excitations correspond to multiple bound states of phonons. The n=2 breather spectra are composed of resonances in the two-phonon continuum and of discrete branches of infinitely long-lived excitations. The nonlinear attributes of these excitations become more pronounced at elevated temperatures. The calculated n=2 breather and the resonance of the monoatomic β lattice hybridize and exchange identity at the zone boundary and are in reasonable agreement with the results of previous calculations using the number-conserving approximation. However, by contrast, the breather spectrum of the α monoatomic lattice couples resonantly with the single-phonon spectrum and cannot be calculated within a number-conserving approximation. Furthermore, we show that for sufficiently strong nonlinearity, the α lattice breathers can be observed directly through the single-phonon inelastic neutron-scattering spectrum. As the temperature is increased, the single-phonon dispersion relation for the α lattice becomes progressively softer as the lattice instability is approached. For the diatomic β lattice, it is found that there are three distinct branches of n=2 breather dispersion relations, which are associated with three distinct two-phonon continua. The two-phonon excitations form three distinct continua: One continuum corresponds to the motion of two independent acoustic phonons, another to the motion of two independent optic phonons, and the last continuum is formed by propagation of two phonons that are one of each character. Each breather dispersion relation is split off the top from of its associated continuum and remains within the forbidden gaps between the continua. The energy splittings from the top of the continua rapidly increase, and the dispersions rapidly decrease with the decreasing energy widths of the associated continua. This finding is in agreement with recent observations of sharp branches of nonlinear vibrational modes in NaI through inelastic neutron-scattering measurements. Furthermore, since the band widths of the various continua successively narrow as the magnitude of their characteristic excitation energies increase, the finding is also in agreement the theoretical prediction that breather excitations in discrete lattices should be localized in the classical limit.

Melting of discrete vortices via quantum fluctuations

We consider nonlinear boson states with a nontrivial phase structure in the three-site Bose-Hubbard ring, quantum discrete vortices (or q vortices), and study their "melting" under the action of quantum fluctuations. We calculate the spatial correlations in the ground states to show the superfluid-insulator crossover and analyze the fidelity between the exact and variational ground states to explore the validity of the classical analysis. We examine the phase coherence and the effect of quantum fluctuations on q vortices and reveal that the breakdown of these coherent structures through quantum fluctuations accompanies the superfluid-insulator crossover.

Stability of quantum breathers

Using two methods we show that a quantized discrete breather in a 1D lattice is stable. One method uses path integrals and compares correlations for a (linear) local mode with those of the quantum breather. The other takes a local mode as the zeroth order system relative to which numerical, cutoff-insensitive diagonalization of the Hamiltonian is performed.

Vibron-polaron in α-helices. II. Two-vibron bound states

The two-vibron dynamics associated to amide-I vibrations in a three-dimensional (3D) alpha-helix is described according to a generalized Davydov model. The helix is modeled by three spines of hydrogen-bonded peptide units linked via covalent bonds. It is shown that the two-vibron energy spectrum supports both a two-vibron free states continuum and two kinds of bound states, called two-vibron bound states (TVBS)-I and TVBS-II, connected to the trapping of two vibrons onto the same amide-I mode and onto two nearest-neighbor amide-I modes belonging to the same spine, respectively. At low temperature, nonvanishing interspine hopping constants yield a three-dimensional nature of both TVBS-I and TVBS-II which the wave functions extend over the three spines of the helix. At biological temperature, the pairs are confined in a given spine and exhibit the same features as the bound states described within a one-dimensional model. The interplay between the temperature and the 3D nature of the helix is also responsible for the occurrence of a third bound state called TVBS-III which refers to the trapping of two vibrons onto two different spines. The experimental signature of the existence of bound states is discussed through the simulation of their infrared pump-probe spectroscopic response. Finally, the fundamental question of the breather-like behavior of two-vibron bound states is addressed.

On dynamical tunneling and classical resonances

This work establishes a firm relationship between classical nonlinear resonances and the phenomenon of dynamical tunneling. It is shown that the classical phase space with its hierarchy of resonance islands completely characterizes dynamical tunneling and explicit forms of the dynamical barriers can be obtained only by identifying the key resonances. Relationship between the phase space viewpoint and the quantum mechanical superexchange approach is discussed in near-integrable and mixed regular-chaotic situations. For near-integrable systems with sufficient anharmonicity the effect of multiple resonances, i.e., resonance-assisted tunneling, can be incorporated approximately. It is also argued that the presumed relation of avoided crossings to nonlinear resonances does not have to be invoked in order to understand dynamical tunneling. For molecules with low density of states the resonance-assisted mechanism is expected to be dominant.

Quantum signatures of breather-breather interactions

The spectrum of the quantum discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation, or boson Hubbard Hamiltonian, on a periodic 1D lattice shows some interesting detailed band structure, which may be interpreted as the quantum signature of a two-breather interaction in the classical case. This fine structure is studied using degenerate perturbation theory. We also present a modification to this model, which increases the mobility of bound states.