Localization of nonlinear excitations in curved waveguides and chains of nonlinear oscillators

Abstract

It is shown that the interplay of curvature and nonlinearity in systems with finite curvature: bent waveguides, curved chains of nonlinear oscillators, etc can lead to the qualitative effects, such as symmetry breaking of the nonlinear excitations and their trapping by the bending. The finite curvature of the waveguide with infinite hard walls (Dirichlet boundary conditions) provides a stabilizing effect on otherwise unstable localized states of repelling nonlinear Schrodinger excitations. The number of quanta which the curved waveguide can bind monotonically increases when the radius of curvature decreases. In the waveguides with Neumann boundary conditions at the confining walls the curved region might manifest itself as a two-hump potential barrier with interbarrier space acting as a potential valley. A threshold character of the scattering process, i.e. transmission, trapping, or reflection of the moving nonlinear excitation passing through the bending, is demonstrated.