Heteroclinic travelling waves for the lattice sine-Gordon equation with linear pair interaction (Q1034180)

The authors consider the lattice sine--Gordon equation in the form \[ \ddot{q}_k(t) = c_0^2 (q_{k+1}(t)-2 q_k(t) + q_{k-1}(t)) - K \sin(q_k(t)), \] where \(k \in \mathbb{Z}\) and \(c_0 > 0\) is the limiting sound speed. Travelling wave solutions are considered in the form \(q_k(t) = u(k - ct)\) for supersonic velocities \(c > c_0\). \textit{P. W. Bates} and \textit{C. Zhang} [Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 16, No. 1, 235-252 (2006; Zbl 1119.34034 )] proved existence of homoclinic travelling waves for supersonic velocities. The authors extend this result for heteroclinic waves, that is, for travelling wave solutions with boundary conditions \[ \lim_{\tau \to \pm \infty} u(\tau) = \pm \pi. \] From a technical point of view, the paper is based on the existence of an action functional, critical points of which give travelling wave solutions of the differential advance-delay equation for \(u(\tau)\). The authors extend the concentration--compactness principle of P.-L. Lions in the case when the associated functional has no sub-additive structure. Using this principle, the authors prove that no vanishing or splitting scenario occur, which guarantee the third alternative, the existence of critical points of the action functional in a suitable function space.