Breathers in the fractional Frenkel-Kontorova model

Abstract

In the present chapter, we explore the possibility of a Frenkel-Kontorova (discrete sine-Gordon) model to bear interactions that decay algebraically with space, inspired by the continuum limit of the corresponding fractional derivative. In such a setting, we revisit the realm of discrete breathers including onsite, intersite and out-of-phase ones and identify their power-law spatial decay, as well as explore their corresponding stability analysis, by means of Floquet multipliers. The relevant stability is also explored parametrically as a function of the frequency and connected to stability criteria for breather dependence of energy vs. frequency. Finally, by suitably perturbing the breathers, we also generate moving waveforms and explore their radiation and potential robustness.