Modulational instabilities and chaotic-like behaviors in repulsive lattices

Abstract

In this paper, we study the dynamics of granular mediums. By comparing each grain of the medium with a ball, and the interaction between various balls like linear elastic interactions, we have established that the dynamics of the system of pendulum used by Fermi–Pasta–Ulam can be governed by a discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Like second advanced, we also established under which conditions this system could be prone to a modulational instability. The long-time dynamics of modulated waves is examined using numerical simulations which are corroborated with analytical results leading to the generation of nonlinear modulated waves which have the shape of a soliton. At the end, we compare our results with what have been carried out previously.