Discrete kink dynamics in hydrogen-bonded chains: the one-component model

Embedded solitons in the double sine-Gordon lattice with next-neighbor interactions

Topological solitons can propagate without radiation in discrete media. These solutions are known as embedded solitons (ES). They come as isolated solutions and exist despite their resonance with the linear spectrum of the respective lattices. In this paper the properties of embedded solitons in the discrete double sine-Gordon equation with next-neighbor and second-neighbor interactions are investigated. Depending on the sign of these interactions they can be either destructive or favorable for the ES creation. The ES existence area depends on the width of the linear spectrum: narrowing of the spectrum widens the ES existence range and vice versa. The application to the Josephson junction arrays is discussed.

Nonlinear waves in a model for silicate layers

Some layered silicates are composed of positive ions, surrounded by layers of ions with opposite sign. Mica muscovite is a particularly interesting material, because there exist fossil and experimental evidence for nonlinear excitations transporting localized energy and charge along the cation rows within the potassium layers. This evidence suggests that there are different kinds of excitations with different energies and properties. Some of the authors proposed recently a one-dimensional model based on physical principles and the silicate structure. The main characteristic of the model is that it has a hard substrate potential and two different repulsion terms, between ions and nuclei. In a previous work with this model, it was found the propagation of crowdions, i.e., lattice kinks in a lattice with substrate potential that transport mass and charge. They have a single specific velocity and energy coherent with the experimental data. In the present work, we perform a much more thorough search for nonlinear excitations in the same model using the pseudospectral method to obtain exact nanopteron solutions, which are single kinks with tails, crowdions, and bi-crowdions. We analyze their velocities, energies, and stability or instability and the possible reasons for the latter. We relate the different excitations with their possible origin from recoils from different beta decays and with the fossil tracks. We explore the consequences of some variation of the physical parameters because their values are not perfectly known. Through a different method, we also have found stationary and moving breathers, that is, localized nonlinear excitations with an internal vibration. Moving breathers have small amplitude and energy, which is also coherent with the fossil evidence.

Fluxon mobility in an array of asymmetric superconducting quantum interference devices

Fluxon dynamics in the dc-biased array of asymmetric three-junction superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) is investigated. The array of SQUIDs is described by the discrete double sine-Gordon equation. It appears that this equation possesses a finite set of velocities at which the fluxon propagates with the constant shape and without radiation. The signatures of these velocities appear on the respective current-voltage characteristics of the array as inaccessible voltage intervals (gaps). The critical depinning current has a clear minimum as a function of the asymmetry parameter (the ratio of the critical currents of the left and right junctions of the SQUID), which coincides with the minimum of the Peierls-Nabarro potential.

Continuous description of lattice discreteness effects in front propagation

Models describing microscopic or mesoscopic phenomena in physics are inherently discrete, where the lattice spacing between fundamental components, such as in the case of atomic sites, is a fundamental physical parameter. The effect of spatial discreteness over front propagation phenomenon in an overdamped one-dimensional periodic lattice is studied. We show here that the study of front propagation leads in a discrete description to different conclusions that in the case of its, respectively, continuous description, and also that the results of the discrete model, can be inferred by effective continuous equations with a supplementary spatially periodic term that we have denominated Peierls-Nabarro drift, which describes the bifurcation diagram of the front speed, the appearance of particle-type solutions and their snaking bifurcation diagram. Numerical simulations of the discrete equation show quite good agreement with the phenomenological description.

Quantum-chemical calculations of a long proton wire. Application of a harmonic model to analysis of the structure of an ionic defect in a water chain with an excess proton

Quantum-chemical calculations of molecular complexes (NH(3))(3)Zn(2+)...(H(2)O)(n)...NH(3) (C(n), n = 11, 16, 21, and 30) simulating a proton wire donor-water chain-acceptor were carried out. Earlier found periodicity in the length of the O-H bonds in water chain is explained within the framework of a one-component harmonic model. In complexes C(n), the geometry and electronic structure of ionic defect in water chain with an excess proton were studied. Calculations carried out at ab initio (B3LYP/6-31+G**) and semiempirical (PM3) levels of theory predict different patterns of distribution of the O-H bonds lengths and positive charge on the H-bond hydrogen atoms in the region of ionic defect. The obtained data show how a length of water chain and position of a protonated water link in the chain influence the ionic defect structure. To describe the observed structures of ionic defect, the harmonic model was used and the role of parameters of the H-bonded chain was investigated. The performed analysis explains different mechanisms (concerted and stepwise) of proton transfer along the H-bonded chain derived from ab initio and semiempirical calculation schemes.

Discrete kink dynamics in hydrogen-bonded chains: the two-component model

We study discrete topological solitary waves (kinks and antikinks) in two nonlinear diatomic chain models that describe the collective dynamics of proton transfers in one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded networks. The essential ingredients of the models are (i) a realistic (anharmonic) ion-proton interaction in the hydrogen bond, (ii) a harmonic coupling between the protons in adjacent hydrogen bonds, and (iii) a harmonic coupling between the nearest-neighbor heavy ions (an isolated diatomic chain with the lowest acoustic band) or instead a harmonic on-site potential for the heavy ions (a diatomic chain subject to a substrate with two optical bands), both providing a bistability of the hydrogen-bonded proton. Exact two-component (kink and antikink) discrete solutions for these models are found numerically. We compare the soliton solutions and their properties in both the one- (when the heavy ions are fixed) and two-component models. The effect of stability switchings, discovered previously for a class of one-component kink-bearing models, is shown to exist in these two-component models as well. However, the presence of the second component, i.e., the softness of the heavy-ion sublattice, brings principal differences, like a significant difference in the stability switchings behavior for the kinks and the antikinks. Water-filled carbon nanotubes are briefly discussed as possible realistic systems, where topological discrete (anti)kink states might exist.