Breather continuation from infinity in nonlinear oscillator chains (Q414785)

This paper is devoted to the study of spatially localized and time-periodic oscillations, called breathers, in lattice models of DNA [\textit{M. Peyrard} et al., ``Nonlinear analysis of the dynamics of DNA breathing'', J. Biol. Phys., 35, 73--89 (2009); \textit{G. James} et al., Appl. Anal. 89, No. 9, 1447--1465 (2010; Zbl 1200.37076)]. It results in a systematic analysis of a mathematical model including the discrete Klein-Gordon equation \[ (\ast ) \ddot{x}_n+V'(x_n)=\gamma (x_{n+1}-2x_n+x_{n-1}), n\in \mathbb{Z}, \] where \(\gamma >0\) is a coupling constant, \(V:\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a nonlinear potential, and \(x(t)=\{x_n(t)\}_{n\in \mathbb{Z}}\) is a sequence of real-valued amplitudes at time \(t\in\mathbb{R}\). The goal of this work is to show the existence of large-amplitude breathers oscillating in several potential wells, setting-up a continuation of these solutions from infinity as \(\gamma \to 0\). To illustrate some key points of the considered task, the authors consider the example \( V (x) =(1/4)(1+e^{-x^2}(x^2-1))\), where \( V \) has a global minimum at the point \(x = 0\), a pair of symmetric global maxima at \(x=\pm a_0\) (\(a_0>0\)), and \(\lim\limits_{x\to\pm\infty } V (x) = 1/4\) . In the anti-continuum limit \(\gamma =0\), \(x_n=0\) for all \(n\in\mathbb{Z}\setminus\{0\}\). A time-periodic solution \(x_0 (t) \equiv x(t)\) of the nonlinear oscillator equation \[ (\ast\ast ) \quad \ddot{x} + V' (x) = 0 \] is considered. Under a nonresonance condition, this compactly supported time-periodic solution can be continued for \(\gamma \approx 0\) into an exponentially localized time-periodic breather solution using the implicit function theorem [\textit{R. S. MacKay} and \textit{S. Aubry}, Nonlinearity, 7, No. 6, 1623--1643 (1994; Zbl 0811.70017)]. In the present paper, the authors consider large-amplitude breathers near the second family of unbounded solutions. The above stated families of breathers are obtained by ``continuation from infinity'' for arbitrarily small values of \(\gamma \), but without reaching \(\gamma =0\). Here the potential \(V\) in the nonlinear oscillator equation (\(\ast\ast \)) can be replaced by \(V_{\gamma }(x)=V(x)+\gamma x^2\). The potential \(V_{\gamma }(x)\) includes a restoring force originating from the nearest-neighbors coupling in the discrete Klein-Gordon equation. A problem of interest here is the control of the nonresonance conditions which are of special interest in order to prove the existence of the above stated breathers. Actually the authors consider the perturbed equation \[ (\ast\ast\ast ) \quad \ddot{x}+V_{\gamma }^{\prime }(x)=0; \] here the energy is \(E=(1/2)\dot{x}^2+V_{\gamma }(x)\). The main result holds under some assumptions: the first assumption allows to consider symmetric periodic oscillations, which can be studied on the quarter of the fundamental period; the second one serves to develop a contraction mapping argument for the small-amplitude oscillations on the sites \(n = 0\); the third assumption concerns the large-amplitude oscillations at the central site \(n = 0\); the fourth assumption concerns the linear oscillations of the central site outside the compact support of \(V \). Under the above stated assumptions it turns out that for all sufficiently small \(\gamma \), there exists a \(T\)-periodic spatially localized solution \( x \in H_{\mathrm{per}} ((0, T ); l^2 (\mathbb{Z}))\) of the Klein-Gordon lattice represented by \((\ast )\) such that \[ x_n (t) = x_{ - n} (t),\quad n\in \mathbb{Z}, \quad x(-t)=x(t)=-x(T/2-t),\quad t\in \mathbb{R} \] and there exists \(C>0\) such that \[ \sup\limits_{t\in [0,T]}|x_0(t)-x(t)|\leq C\gamma^{-1/4},\quad \sup\limits_{n\in\mathbb{N}}\sup\limits_{t\in [0,T]}|x_n(t)|\leq C\gamma^{1/4}. \] Finally, the authors show that the large-amplitude discrete breather decays exponentially in \(n\) on \(\mathbb{Z}\).