Ultradiscrete kinks with supersonic speed in a layered crystal with realistic potentials

J. F. R. Archilla, Yu. A. Kosevich, N. Jiménez, V. J. Sánchez-Morcillo, and L. M. García-Raffi
Phys. Rev. E 91, 022912 – Published 13 February 2015

Abstract

In this paper we develop a dynamical model of the propagating nonlinear localized excitations, supersonic kinks, in the cation layer in a silicate mica crystal. We start from purely electrostatic Coulomb interaction and add the Ziegler-Biersack-Littmark short-range repulsive potential and the periodic potential produced by other atoms of the lattice. The proposed approach allows the construction of supersonic kinks which can propagate in the lattice within a large range of energies and velocities. Due to the presence of the short-range repulsive component in the potential, the interparticle distances in the lattice kinks with high energy are limited by physically reasonable values. The introduction of the periodic lattice potential results in the important feature that the kinks propagate with the single velocity and single energy, which are independent on the excitation conditions. The unique average velocity of the supersonic kinks on the periodic substrate potential we relate with the kink amplitude of the relative particle displacements, which is determined by the interatomic distance corresponding to the minimum of the total, interparticle plus substrate, lattice potential. The found kinks are ultradiscrete and can be described with the “magic wave number” q=2π/3a, which was previously revealed in the nonlinear sinusoidal waves and supersonic kinks in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattice. The extreme discreteness of the observed supersonic kinks, with basically two particles moving at the same time, allows the detailed interpretation of their double-kink structure, which is not possible for the multikinks without an account for the lattice discreteness. Analytical calculations of the displacement patterns and energies of the supersonic kinks are confirmed by numerical simulations. The computed energy of the found supersonic kinks in the considered realistic lattice potential is in a good agreement with the experimental evidence for the transport of localized energetic excitations in silicate mica crystals between the points of K40 recoil and subsequent sputtering.

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  • Received 25 July 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.91.022912

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. F. R. Archilla1,*, Yu. A. Kosevich2,†, N. Jiménez3, V. J. Sánchez-Morcillo3, and L. M. García-Raffi4

  • 1Grupo de Física No Lineal, Universidad de Sevilla, ETSI Informática, Avda Reina Mercedes s/n, 41012 Seville, Spain
  • 2Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences. Kosygin street 4, 119991 Moscow, Russia
  • 3Instituto de Investigación para la Gestión, Integrada de las Zonas Costeras, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, C/.Paranimfo 1, 46730 Grao de Gandia, Spain
  • 4Instituto Universitario de Matemática Pura y Aplicada, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain

  • *archilla@us.es
  • Corresponding author: yukosevich@gmail.com

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Vol. 91, Iss. 2 — February 2015

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