%0 Journal Article
%T Breathers and surface modes in oscillator chains with Hertzian interactions
%A Guillaume James
%A Jesus Cuevas
%A Panayotis Kevrekidis
%J Physics
%D 2013
%I arXiv
%R 10.1016/j.physd.2013.01.017
%X We study localized waves in chains of oscillators coupled by Hertzian interactions and trapped in local potentials. This problem is originally motivated by Newton's cradle, a mechanical system consisting of a chain of touching beads subject to gravity and attached to inelastic strings. We consider an unusual setting with local oscillations and collisions acting on similar time scales, a situation corresponding e.g. to a modified Newton's cradle with beads mounted on stiff cantilevers. Such systems support static and traveling breathers with unusual properties, including double exponential spatial decay, almost vanishing Peierls-Nabarro barrier and spontaneous direction-reversing motion. We prove analytically the existence of surface modes and static breathers for anharmonic on-site potentials and weak Hertzian interactions.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1769v1