Growth and decay of discrete nonlinear Schrödinger breathers interacting with internal modes or standing-wave phonons

We investigate the long-time evolution of weakly perturbed single-site breathers (localized stationary states) in the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The perturbations we consider correspond to time-periodic solutions of the linearized equations around the breather, and can be either (i) spatially localized or (ii) spatially extended. For case (i), which corresponds to the excitation of an internal mode of the breather, we find that the nonlinear interaction between the breather and its internal mode always leads to a slow growth of the breather amplitude and frequency. In case (ii), corresponding to interaction between the breather and a standing-wave phonon, the breather will grow provided that the wave vector of the phonon is such that the generation of radiating higher harmonics at the breather is possible. In other cases, breather decay is observed. This condition yields a limit value for the breather frequency above which no further growth is possible. We also discuss another mechanism for breather growth and destruction which becomes important when the amplitude of the perturbation is non-negligible, and which originates from the oscillatory instabilities of the nonlinear standing-wave phonons.