Dispersive shock waves in periodic lattices

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Su, Chandramouli, Sathyanarayanan, Kevrekidis, Panayotis G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866911579250884608
author Yang, Su
Chandramouli, Sathyanarayanan
Kevrekidis, Panayotis G.
author_facet Yang, Su
Chandramouli, Sathyanarayanan
Kevrekidis, Panayotis G.
contents We introduce and systematically investigate the generation of dispersive shock waves, which arise naturally in physical settings such as optical waveguide arrays and superfluids confined within optical lattices. The underlying physically relevant model is a nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation with a periodic potential. We consider the evolution of piecewise smooth initial data composed of two distinct nonlinear periodic eigenmodes. To begin interpreting the resulting wave dynamics, we employ the tight-binding approximation, reducing the continuous system to a discrete NLS (DNLS) model with piecewise constant initial data (i.e., a Riemann problem), where each constant state represents a discrete Floquet-Bloch mode at the continuum model level. The resulting tight-binding approximation is shown to display higher-fidelity for {deeper} periodic potentials. This reduced DNLS model effectively models the dynamics at the minima of the periodic potential of the original continuum NLS. Within such a single-band DNLS framework, we apply tools from Whitham modulation theory and long-wave quasi-continuum reductions to uncover and analyze a rich spectrum of non-convex, discrete dispersive hydrodynamic phenomena, comparing the resulting phenomenology with that of the periodic-potential-bearing continuum model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_14549
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dispersive shock waves in periodic lattices
Yang, Su
Chandramouli, Sathyanarayanan
Kevrekidis, Panayotis G.
Pattern Formation and Solitons
Quantum Gases
35Q55, 35Q51
We introduce and systematically investigate the generation of dispersive shock waves, which arise naturally in physical settings such as optical waveguide arrays and superfluids confined within optical lattices. The underlying physically relevant model is a nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation with a periodic potential. We consider the evolution of piecewise smooth initial data composed of two distinct nonlinear periodic eigenmodes. To begin interpreting the resulting wave dynamics, we employ the tight-binding approximation, reducing the continuous system to a discrete NLS (DNLS) model with piecewise constant initial data (i.e., a Riemann problem), where each constant state represents a discrete Floquet-Bloch mode at the continuum model level. The resulting tight-binding approximation is shown to display higher-fidelity for {deeper} periodic potentials. This reduced DNLS model effectively models the dynamics at the minima of the periodic potential of the original continuum NLS. Within such a single-band DNLS framework, we apply tools from Whitham modulation theory and long-wave quasi-continuum reductions to uncover and analyze a rich spectrum of non-convex, discrete dispersive hydrodynamic phenomena, comparing the resulting phenomenology with that of the periodic-potential-bearing continuum model.
title Dispersive shock waves in periodic lattices
topic Pattern Formation and Solitons
Quantum Gases
35Q55, 35Q51
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14549