EPL, 78 (2007) 26001
DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/78/26001

Growth and erosion of a discrete breather interacting with Rayleigh-Jeans distributed phonons

B. Rumpf

Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology - 09107 Chemnitz, Germany

received 10 November 2006; accepted in final form 26 February 2007; published April 2007
published online 23 March 2007

Abstract
The interaction of a discrete breather with Rayleigh-Jeans distributed low-amplitude phonons is studied for the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation. A statistical analysis gives a criterion for growth or decay of the breather, depending on its phase frequency, and on the chemical potential of the phonons. If the breather exceeds a critical amplitude, the breather accumulates wave action from the phonons and grows. If the breather amplitude is smaller, the phonons erode the breather.

PACS
63.20.Pw - Localized modes.
63.70.+h - Statistical mechanics of lattice vibrations and displacive phase transitions.
05.45.-a - Nonlinear dynamics and chaos.

© Europhysics Letters Association 2007