Front propagation in lattices with on-site bistable non-degenerate potential: multiplicity, bifurcations and route to chaos

Abstract

Propagation of transition fronts in models of coupled oscillators with non-degenerate on-site potential is usually considered in terms of travelling waves. We show that the system dynamics can be reformulated as an implicit map structure, and the travelling waves correspond to stable fixed points. Therefore, the loss of stability of such waves should follow well-known generic bifurcation scenarios. Then, one can expect a plethora of qualitatively different propagating-front solutions - multistable, multi-periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic.