When discrete fronts and pulses form a single family: FPU chain with hardening-softening springs

Abstract

We consider a version of the classical Hamiltonian FPU (Fermi–Pasta–Ulam) problem with nonlinear force-strain relation in which a hardening response is taken over by a softening regime above a critical strain value. We show that in addition to pulses (solitary waves) this discrete system also supports non-topological and dissipation-free fronts (kinks). Moreover, we demonstrate that these two types of supersonic traveling wave solutions belong to the same family. Within this family, solitary waves exist for continuous ranges of velocity that extend up to a limiting speed corresponding to kinks. As the kink velocity limit is approached from above or below, the solitary waves become progressively more broad and acquire the structure of a kink–antikink bundle. Direct numerical simulations and Floquet analysis of linear stability suggest that all of the obtained solutions are effectively stable. To motivate and support our study of the discrete problem we also analyze a quasicontinuum approximation with temporal dispersion. We show that this model captures the main effects observed in the discrete problem both qualitatively and quantitatively.