2000/03/31 by P. L. Christiansen, Peter L. Christiansen, Yuri Gaididei +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #cond-mat.soft #nlin.PS
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-8984/13/6/301
published as J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 13, 1181-1192 (2001). · 13 pages (LaTeX) with 10 figures (EPS)
arxiv created 2000/11/30 · openalex publication_date 2001/01/25 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We consider a curved chain of non-linear oscillators and show that the interplay of curvature and non-linearity leads to a number of qualitative effects. In particular, the energy of non-linear localized excitations centred on the bending decreases when curvature increases, i.e. bending manifests itself as a trap for excitations. Moreover, the potential of this trap is a double-well one, thus leading to a symmetry-breaking phenomenon: a symmetric stationary state may become unstable and transform into an energetically favourable asymmetric stationary state. The essentials of symmetry breaking are examined analytically for a simplified model. We also demonstrate a threshold character of the scattering process, i.e. transmission, trapping, or reflection of the moving non-linear excitation passing through the bending.