Solitons in diatomic elastic continua (Q1068578)

In this paper we consider the propagation of small finite amplitude plane longitudinal waves in a diatomic elastic continuum. In the linear approximation, in contrast to the result of classical linear elasticity, there is a dispersive optical branch as well as a dispersive acoustical branch for time harmonic waves in unbounded media. The acoustical mode has a weakly dispersive region when the wave number is small. Besides this region, both the acoustical and optical modes are strongly dispersive. When the nonlinearity is present, we show that in weakly dispersive region the wave propagation is asymptotically governed by the Korteweg-de Vries equation while in the strongly dispersive region by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Consequently, solitons and envelope solitons which are not encountered in the classical nonlinear theory of elastic solids, may exist in unbounded diatomic elastic continua. These results are in conformity with those obtained via lattice dynamical approach to the similar problem by employing the cubic or both cubic and quartic interaction potentials.