Discrete Breathers in One-Dimensional Diatomic Granular Crystals

N. Boechler , G. Theocharis , Stéphane Job (1, 2, 3, 4) , Panayotis G. Kevrekidis , M. A. Porter , C. Daraio

1 LISMMA - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Mécaniques et des MAtériaux
2 SUPMECA - SUPMECA - Institut supérieur de mécanique de Paris
3 GALCIT - Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology
4 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology

We report the experimental observation of discrete breathers in a one-dimensional diatomic granular crystal composed of compressed elastic beads that interact via Hertzian contact. We first characterize their effective linear spectrum both theoretically and experimentally. We then illustrate theoretically and numerically the modulational instability of the lower edge of the optical band. This leads to the dynamical formation of long-lived breather structures, whose families of solutions we compute throughout the linear spectral gap. Finally, we observe experimentally such localized breathing modes with quantitative characteristics that agree with our numerical results.

Domains: Pattern Formation and Solitons [nlin.PS]

N. Boechler, G. Theocharis, Stéphane Job, Panayotis G. Kevrekidis, M. A. Porter, et al.. Discrete Breathers in One-Dimensional Diatomic Granular Crystals. Physical Review Letters, 2010, 104 (24), pp.244302. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.244302⟩. ⟨hal-00624744⟩