A numerical calculation of a weakly non-local solitary wave: the ϕ⁴breather (Q3977652)

This paper deals with the \(\phi^ 4\) breather, i.e. the spatially localized, temporally periodic solution of the \(\phi^ 4\) equation: (1) \(\phi_{xx}-\phi_{tt}+\phi-\phi^ 3=0\). Several authors have constructed the breather in the form of an asymptotic series in powers of \(\varepsilon=(2-\omega^ 2)^{1/2}\) where \(\omega\) is the breather's frequency. It has been recently proved, however, that this series is not convergent and equation (1) does not admit exponentially confined, temporally periodic solutions. Instead, the oscillating \(\phi^ 4\) soliton was found to decay by radiation to infinity --- though the amplitude of the ``far-field'' radiation is exponentially small in \(\varepsilon\). In this paper novel numerical methods are presented for computing breather-like solutions on a finite, spatially periodic interval and on \(x\in (-\infty,+\infty)\). Using these, the author obtains spatially periodic breathers which are non-decaying in time. Relaxing the requirement that the solutions die off exponentially for large \(| x|\), non-decaying pulsating solitons are computed on the infinite interval, too. As confronted to the ``faithful breathers'', these solutions exhibit exponentially small amplitude spatial oscillations which persist arbitrarily far from the core of the soliton.