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# Wave scattering by discrete breathers

## I Introduction

The problem of wave propagation through media with various inhomogeneities has been a complex issue of constant interest and appears in different areas of physics. Particular examples are acoustic and electromagnetic wave propagation in various disordered media , tunneling of electrons in solids and electron transport through quantum (molecular) wires . In many cases of interest the conductivity (electron transport)  and the heat conductivity (phonon transport) are determined through the wave scattering by spatial inhomogeneities. Of particular interest is the wave propagation in one-dimensional systems where interference effects may be strongly enhanced.

In most of the studies wave scattering by static localized inhomogeneities has been considered. More recently the scattering by generic time-dependent potentials has received strong attention . This is due to the possibility to generate various time-dependent scattering potentials artificially e.g. in the presence of laser beams or microwave radiation. Several interesting effects such as giant enhancement of tunneling and Fano resonances have been found.

It is a well established fact that various nonlinear spatially discrete systems can support different types of excitations, namely, propagating linear waves (phonons) and time-periodic spatially localized excitations called discrete breather states (DB) . The origin of the latter localized states is not the presence of disorder but rather the peculiar interplay between the nonlinearity and discreteness of the lattice. While the nonlinearity provides with an amplitude-dependent tunability of oscillation or rotation frequencies of DBs, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$, the spatial discreteness of the system leads to finite upper bounds of the frequency spectrum of small amplitude waves $`\omega _q`$. It allows to escape resonances of all multiples of the breather frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ with $`\omega _q`$. Note here, that nonlinear discrete lattices admit different types of DBs depending on the spectrum of linear waves propagating in the lattice, i. e. acoustic breathers and rotobreathers (Fig. 1a and 1b), optical breathers (Fig. 1c), etc. Such properties of DBs as their frequency dependent localization length and the stability of DBs with respect to small amplitude perturbations have been widely studied. DBs have been observed in experiments covering such diverse fields as nonlinear optics , interacting Josephson junctions  magnetic systems and lattice dynamics of crystals .

Although DBs present complex dynamical objects, in many cases experimental measurements can be well understood by using certain time-averaged properties of DBs . Thus, a natural question appears whether the internal breather dynamics is of crucial importance to understand the lattice dynamics in the presence of DBs. In this paper we study the propagation of small amplitude plane waves in one-dimensional nonlinear lattices in the presence of a DB and obtain that the internal dynamics of the DB may lead to a drastical increase or decrease of wave transmission as compared to the time-averaged setup. Thus the wave scattering by DBs is interesting both as some spectroscopical tool to study DB properties and as a way to control the wave transmission (conductivity) by varying the DB state. Finally our studies are of use for the general understanding of wave scattering by time-periodic potentials.

First successful attempts to describe the variety of phenomena arising from wave scattering by DBs have been performed some time ago . While a number of results have been obtained, we are far from a full description of the complexity of possible scattering outcomes. This concerns the wave scattering in systems with acoustic spectra $`\omega _q`$, the importance of the internal DB dynamics including the comparison between rotational and vibrational excitations, the dependence of the wave propagation on the DB energy, and the single channel elastic versus the two channel inelastic scattering cases. Here we will address these problems but restrict ourselves to the elastic scattering case.

The paper is organized as follows: in Section II we present the general formalism and describe analytical and novel numerical methods used to analyze the wave scattering by DBs, in Sections III, IV and V the dependencies of the transmission coefficient on the breather frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ and the wave number $`q`$ for different types of breathers (acoustic breathers and rotobreathers, optical breathers, see Fig. 1) are obtained, and finally a discussion is provided in Section VI.

## II General formalism

To proceed we will consider one-dimensional nonlinear lattices with nearest neighbor interaction, optional on-site (substrate) potential, and with one degree of freedom per lattice site. Both the increasing of the interaction range and the extension to more than the one degree of freedom per lattice site are not of crucial importance.

The dynamics of the system is characterized by time-dependent coordinates $`x_n(t)`$ and the class of Hamiltonians considered here reads

$`\mathrm{H}={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{x}_n^2}{2}}+V[x_n]+W[x_nx_{n1}]\right).`$ (1)
Here $`V[x]`$ is an optional on-site (substrate) potential and $`W[x]`$ is the nearest neighbor interaction. The equations of motion become

$`\ddot{x}_n=W^{}[x_nx_{n1}]+W^{}[x_{n+1}x_n]V^{}[x_n].`$ (2)
Without loss of generality we take $`V[0]=W[0]=V^{}[0]=W^{}[0]=0`$ and $`V^{\prime \prime }[0]0`$, $`W^{\prime \prime }[0]>0`$. This Hamiltonian supports the excitation of small amplitude linear waves with the frequency spectrum

$$\omega _q^2=V^{\prime \prime }[0]+4W^{\prime \prime }[0]\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{q}{2}\right),$$
(3)
with $`q`$ being the wave number.

Time-dependent spatially localized solutions (DBs) exist for different types of potentials $`V[x]`$ and $`W[x]`$, although at least one of the two functions ($`V[x]`$ and/or $`W[x]`$) has to be anharmonic. DB solutions are characterized by being time-periodic $`\widehat{x}_n(t+T_b)=\widehat{x}_n(t)`$ and spatially localized $`\widehat{x}_{|n|\mathrm{}}0`$ (except systems with $`V=0`$ where $`\widehat{x}_{n\pm \mathrm{}}\pm c`$ with $`c`$ possibly being nonzero). If the Hamiltonian $`H`$ is invariant under a finite translation (rotation) of any $`x_nx_n+\lambda `$, then discrete rotobreathers (DRB) may exist . These excitations are characterized by one or several sites in the breather center evolving in a rotational state $`\widehat{x}_0(t+T_b)=\widehat{x}_0(t)+\lambda `$, while outside this center the lattice is governed again by time periodic spatially localized oscillations. The breather frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=2\pi /T_b`$ can generally take any values provided $`k\mathrm{\Omega }_b\omega _q`$ for all nonzero integer $`k`$. As $`\omega _q^2`$ is an analytic function of $`q`$, DBs are exponentially localized on the lattice.

### A The linearized problem

To study the scattering of small amplitude plane waves by a DB we linearize the equations of motion (2) around a breather solution $`x_n(t)=\widehat{x}_n(t)+ϵ_n(t)`$:

$`\ddot{ϵ}_n`$ $`=`$ $`W^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_n(t)\widehat{x}_{n1}(t)](ϵ_nϵ_{n1})`$ (5)
$`+W^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_{n+1}(t)\widehat{x}_n(t)](ϵ_{n+1}ϵ_n)V^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_n(t)]ϵ_n.`$
This is a set of coupled linear differential equations with time periodic coefficients of period $`T_b`$. Note that these coefficients are determined by the given DB solution $`\widehat{x}_n(t)`$.

Eq.(5) determines the linear stability of the breather through the spectral properties of the Floquet matrix, which is given by a map over one breather period

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{}{ϵ}(T_b)\hfill \\ \dot{\stackrel{}{ϵ}}(T_b)\hfill \end{array}\right)=𝐅\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{}{ϵ}(0)\hfill \\ \dot{\stackrel{}{ϵ}}(0)\hfill \end{array}\right),`$ (10)
where $`\stackrel{}{ϵ}(\mathrm{},ϵ_{n1},ϵ_n,ϵ_{n+1},\mathrm{})`$. For marginally stable breathers all eigenvalues of the symplectic matrix $`𝐅`$ will be located on the unit circle and can be written as $`e^{i\theta }`$. The corresponding eigenvectors are the solutions of Eq.(5), and fulfill the Bloch condition

$`ϵ_n(t+T_b)=e^{i\theta t/T_b}ϵ_n(t).`$ (11)
Because the DB solution is exponentially localized on the lattice, equation (5) will reduce to the usual small amplitude wave equation far away from the breather center. Thus, only a finite number of Floquet eigenvectors are spatially localized, while an infinite number of them (for an infinite lattice) are delocalized and these solutions correspond to plane waves with the spectrum (3) and the Floquet phases $`\theta =\pm \omega _qT_b`$. The remaining Floquet eigenvalues correspond to local Floquet eigenvectors and are separated from the plane wave spectrum on the unit circle. Note here, that two eigenvectors with the degenerated eigenvalue $`e^{i\theta }=+1`$ always exist and reflect perturbations tangent to the breather family of solutions.

As a consequence of the Bloch condition (11) any spatially extended Floquet eigenvector can be represented in the form

$$ϵ_n(t)=\underset{k=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}e_{nk}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}(\omega _q+k\mathrm{\Omega }_b)t}.$$
(12)
What happens if we send a plane wave with frequency $`\omega _q`$ to the DB? We will deal with the case of one-channel scattering as for any $`k0`$ and any $`q^{}`$, $`\omega _q^{}\omega _q+k\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$. This condition determines that all channels with nonzero $`k`$ are ’closed’, i.e. the spatial amplitudes $`e_{nk}`$ are localized in space. Note here, that the frequencies of transmitted and reflected waves are the same and coincide with the the frequency of the incoming wave, since they all belong to the only open channel with $`k=0`$.

For harmonic interaction potentials $`W`$ it was shown in Ref.  that the momentum

$$J=W^{\prime \prime }[0]\mathrm{Im}ϵ_n^{}ϵ_{n1}$$
(13)
is independent of the lattice site. Here the averaging is meant with respect to time. In a similar way it is straightforward to show that the quantity

$$\stackrel{~}{J}=W^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_n(t)\widehat{x}_{n1}(t)]\mathrm{Im}ϵ_n^{}ϵ_{n1}$$
(14)
is independent of the lattice site. Since the breather solution $`\widehat{x}_n(t)`$ is spatially localized, at large distances from the breather we find again that the momentum $`J`$ is independent of the lattice site. Especially we find that it is the same for $`n\pm \mathrm{}`$. Following Ref.  we conclude that the one-channel scattering case is elastic, i.e. the energy of an incoming wave equals the sum of the energies of the outgoing (reflected and transmitted) waves.

Despite the fact that we will study the one-channel elastic scattering, the scattering potential of DB is time-periodic. The above mentioned ’closed’ channels are active inside the breather core, i. e. the frequency of linear waves in a finite area around the breather center can change due to the interaction with the DB (see Fig.2).

Thus one of the questions to be answered below is to identify the cases when the well-known scattering by a time-averaged (static) potential is not sufficient to describe the actual results of wave scattering by discrete breathers. This implies that interference effects through local interactions between the active closed channels may substantially change the scattering results as compared to a time-averaged scattering potential.

Assuming that the breather is located around the central site $`n=0`$, the one-channel scattering problem can be written as

$`ϵ_n(t)=A_Ie^{i(\omega _qt+qn)}+A_Re^{i(\omega _qtqn)},n<0`$ (15)
$`ϵ_n(t)=A_Te^{i(\omega _qtqn)},n>0`$ (16)
for

$$|n|sup[\xi _b(0),\xi _b(\omega _q)]$$
(17)
where $`\xi _b(\omega )=sup\xi (\omega +k\mathrm{\Omega }_b)`$ and

$`\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{sinh}^2\xi (\nu )/2=\frac{V^{\prime \prime }[0]\nu ^2}{4W^{\prime \prime }[0]},|\nu |<\omega _q(0)\hfill \\ \mathrm{cosh}^2\xi (\nu )/2=\frac{\nu ^2V^{\prime \prime }[0]}{4W^{\prime \prime }[0]},|\nu |>\omega _q(\pi )\hfill \end{array}`$ (20)
$`\xi `$ measures the characteristic inverse localization length of a closed channel at frequency $`\nu `$ (note that for $`\nu =k\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ the localization length is that of the breather itself, see also ). The incoming wave has amplitude $`A_I`$, and the reflected and transmitted wave amplitudes are given by $`A_R`$ and $`A_T`$ respectively. The transmission coefficient $`t_q=\left|A_T/A_I\right|^2`$.

For further considerations we will use the notation of the Bloch functions $`\zeta _n(t)`$ defined as

$`ϵ_n(t)=\zeta _n(t)e^{i\omega _qt}.`$ (21)
In order to estimate the relative strength of closed channels with $`k0`$ we expand the time-periodic coefficients of (5) in a Fourier series with respect to time:

$`W^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_n(t)\widehat{x}_{n1}(t)]={\displaystyle \underset{k=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}w_{n,k}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}k\mathrm{\Omega }_bt},`$ (22)
$`V^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_n(t)]={\displaystyle \underset{k=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}v_{n,k}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}k\mathrm{\Omega }_bt}.`$ (23)
We consider first the case of a strongly localized optical breather located at site $`n=0`$ with $`W(y)=\frac{c}{2}y^2`$. Taking into account a single closed channel with some value of $`k`$, inserting (22),(23) and (12) into (5) and excluding $`e_{nk}`$, the relative strength $`s_k`$ of the closed channel to the open one will be given by

$$s_k=\left|\frac{v_{0,k}^2}{(v_{0,0}1)(v_{0,0}+2c(1\eta _k)(\omega _q+k\mathrm{\Omega }_b)^2)}\right|,$$
(24)
where the relative amplitude

$$\eta _k=\pm \frac{e_{1,k}}{e_{0,k}}=\mathrm{e}^{\xi (\omega _q+k\mathrm{\Omega }_b)}$$
(25)
has positive sign for $`\omega _q+k\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ located inside the phonon gap and negative sign otherwise. For $`s_k1`$ we do not expect any significant contribution from the given closed channel, while $`s_k1`$ indicate a strong influence of the closed channel on the scattering process. Note that the expression $`\sqrt{v_{00}+2c(1\eta _k)}`$ in the denominator of (24) is just a frequency $`\omega _L`$ of a local phonon mode of the time-averaged scattering potential. For spatially discrete systems these local phonon modes may be located inside or outside of the phonon gap. The denominator of (24) may vanish for certain wave numbers, which would imply a resonance-like enhancement of the closed channel contribution (for certain wavenumbers $`q`$). As such a resonant enhancement of a closed channel amplitude acts as a huge effective scattering potential to the open channel, for these cases we expect a resonant suppression of transmission. Thus, qualitatively such a complete suppression of transmission (Fano-like resonance ) is explained by a resonant interaction of the propagating phonon with the specific local phonon mode. However in order to quantitatively analyze this effect the renormalization of the value of $`\omega _L`$ due to all nonresonant processes, has to be taken into account. It will be done below for a particular case of optical breathers by making use of the Green function method. We obtain that although the renormalization of $`\omega _L`$ is rather small it may become important especially as the width of a phonon band is small, $`W^{\prime \prime }1`$.

In a similar way we proceed for the estimation of the closed channel contribution of acoustic breathers. We obtain the following expression for the relative strength $`r_k`$

$$r_k=\left|\frac{w_{0,k}^2}{(w_{0,0})(w_{0,0}(\omega _q+k\mathrm{\Omega }_b)^2)}\right|.$$
(26)
Thus, we again find a resonant suppression of transmission when the presence of acoustic DB leads to a local increase in the nearest neighbor interaction and to an appearance of a corresponding local phonon mode. However, this case is much more involved as compared to the optical DB case, and Eq. (26) may serve only as a qualitative tool to check whether a closed channel is strongly contributing to the transmission or not. We will instead provide with a more quantitative analysis for the cases considered, based on the particular acoustic breather properties.

### B Numerical scheme

To compute numerically the transmission coefficient we have developed a scheme which generalizes the one given in Ref.  (which relies on a spatial reflection symmetry of the breather and thus of the scattering potential). At variance with Ref.  our scheme is capable of dealing with any (perhaps spatially nonsymmetric) time-periodic scattering potential.

We look for solutions of Eq.(5) which correspond to zeroes of the operator

$`𝐆(\stackrel{}{ϵ}(0),\dot{\stackrel{}{ϵ}}(0))=\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{}{ϵ}(0)\\ \dot{\stackrel{}{ϵ}}(0)\end{array}\right)e^{i\omega _qT_b}\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{}{ϵ}(T_b)\\ \dot{\stackrel{}{ϵ}}(T_b)\end{array}\right)`$ (31)
on a lattice with $`2N+1`$ sites labeled $`N,(N+1),\mathrm{},1,0,1,\mathrm{}(N1),N`$. The incoming wave is fed from the left, and the transmitted wave is leaving the system to the right. The boundary condition at the right end is $`ϵ_{N+1}=e^{i\omega _qt}`$, which implies that the transmitted wave will have amplitude 1. With a given boundary condition at the left end $`ϵ_{N1}=(A+iB)e^{i\omega _qt}`$, where $`A`$ and $`B`$ are real numbers, we may find the zeroes of (31) using a standard Newton routine. Due to the linearity of the equations of motion in $`ϵ`$ an arbitrary initial guess and one Newton step are needed to converge to the zeroes. In practice due to roundoff errors an additional Newton step may be required.

However with arbitrary $`A`$ and $`B`$ we will not realize the scattering case (15,16) in general. This is due to the fact that all extended Floquet states of an infinite system are twofold degenerated because time reversal symmetry holds far from the breather center. To succeed we add a second Newton procedure which uses $`A`$ and $`B`$ as free parameters such that the solution on site $`N`$ becomes $`ϵ_N=e^{iqi\omega _qt}`$, ensuring that we realize a single transmitted traveling wave of amplitude one at the right end of the system. After the Newton procedures are completed, the transmission coefficient is then given by

$`t_q={\displaystyle \frac{4\mathrm{sin}^2q}{|(A+iB)e^{iq}\zeta _N|^2}}.`$ (32)
While the Bloch functions $`\zeta _n`$ are in general time-dependent close to the breather center, they will be time-independent complex numbers at large distance from the breather. We note that the computation operates at the machine precision, and we obtain results which are size independent, i.e. with the above described boundary conditions we emulate an infinite system. The discrete breather solution itself has to be obtained beforehand using standard numerical procedures .

The enumerator in (32) vanishes at the extremal values of $`\omega _q`$, i.e. at $`q=0`$ and $`q=\pi `$. If the denominator is finite at these values of $`q`$, the transmission will also vanish. This is indeed the generic case for a quadratic dependence of the spectrum $`\omega _q`$ on $`q`$ around these points. Exceptions are expected for acoustic chains (see next Section).

Another peculiar point is that if upon changing some control parameter, e.g. the breather frequency, a localized Floquet eigenstate attaches to or disattaches from the extended Floquet spectrum, the transmission coefficient will be exactly $`t=1`$ for the $`q`$-value which corresponds to the edge of the spectrum $`\omega _q`$, i.e. $`q=0`$ or $`q=\pi `$ .

### C Green function method for a time-periodic localized scattering potential

We will also analyze the wave propagation through DBs by making use of the Green function technique . This method is especially convenient as the scattering potential is localized in space. To apply this method to a particular case when the presence of DBs leads to the appearance of a localized time-dependent on-site scattering potential, $`V^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_n(t)]1`$, we perform a time Fourier transformation of Eq. (5) and obtain the equation for the Green function $`G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)`$ :

$$G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)=G_{\omega _q}^0(n_1,n_2)$$

$$\underset{m}{}G_{\omega _q}^0(n_1,m)𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }U_\mathrm{\Omega }(m)G_{\omega _q+\mathrm{\Omega }}(m,n_2),$$
(33)
where $`G_{\omega _q}^0(n_1,n_2)`$ is the Green function of the linear equations of motion in the absence of the DB. The Fourier transform of the localized scattering potential $`U_\mathrm{\Omega }(m)=𝑑te^{i\mathrm{\Omega }t}(V^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_m(t)]1)`$ is determined by the properties of the DB solution. Because the DBs are periodic solutions in time the potential $`U_\mathrm{\Omega }(m)`$ contains just the harmonics of the breather frequency, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=k\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$. Moreover, as we will see later in the considered cases we can take into account the harmonics with small values of $`k=0,\pm 1,\pm 2`$ only. Thus, the calculation of the Green function $`G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)`$ can be represented in a diagrammatic form where terms which correspond to active closed channels describe the local (virtual) absorption and emission of phonons by the propagating phonon in the presence of the DB (some of the typical diagrams are shown in Fig.3). Moreover, for one-channel scattering the energy conservation law of absorbed and emitted phonons has to hold. In order to obtain the transmission coefficient $`t_q`$ we need also an expression for the Green function $`G_\omega ^0(n_1,n_2)`$ which reads

$$G_\omega ^0(n_1,n_2)=\frac{dq}{2\pi }\frac{e^{iq(n_1n_2)}}{\omega ^2\omega _q^2}.$$
(34)
The Green function of the full problem (for one-channel scattering) has a similar form for large distances from the breather center ($`n_1\mathrm{}`$ and $`n_2+\mathrm{}`$):

$$G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)=iD_q\frac{e^{iq|n_1n_2|}}{d(\omega _q^2)/dq},$$
(35)
where $`t_q=|D_q|^2`$.

As an example for a static scattering potential which is strongly localized on a single site ($`n=0`$) we obtain

$$G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)=\frac{G_{\omega _q}^0(n_1,n_2)}{1+\beta _0G_{\omega _q}^0(0,0)},$$
(36)
where $`\beta _0`$ is the strength of the static potential. The transmission coefficient $`\stackrel{~}{t}_q`$ in this case is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_q=\frac{(d(\omega _q^2)/dq)^2}{\beta _0^2+(d(\omega _q^2)/dq)^2}.$$
(37)
We will use the Green function method in Section V where the wave scattering by optical DBs (see Fig. 1c) will be presented. We show how most important diagrams can be taken into account in the case of a time-periodic localized scattering potential.

### D Time-averaged scattering potential

Since we are interested in understanding the importance of the time dependence of the scattering potential, we will also compare the numerical results with those obtained by time-averaging the DB scattering potential. This time-averaging can be found numerically beforehand and Eq. (5) becomes

$`\ddot{\stackrel{~}{ϵ}}_n`$ $`=`$ $`w_{n,0}(\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_n\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_{n1})+`$ (39)
$`w_{n+1,0}(\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_{n+1}\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_n)v_{n,0}\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_n.`$
Because in this case all inhomogeneities are time-independent we can use the standard scattering matrix method. With $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_n(t)=\stackrel{~}{\zeta }_ne^{i\omega _qt}`$ Eq.(39) is rewritten as

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{\zeta }_{n+1}\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{\zeta }_n\hfill \end{array}\right)=𝐌_n\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{\zeta }_n\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{\zeta }_{n1}\hfill \end{array}\right),`$ (44)
with

$`𝐌_n=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1+\frac{E_n+c_{n,n1}\omega _q^2}{c_{n+1,n}}& \frac{c_{n,n1}}{c_{n+1,n}}\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ (47)
where $`E_n=v_{n,0}`$ and $`c_{n,n1}=w_{n,0}`$. It follows

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{\zeta }_{N+1}\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{\zeta }_N\hfill \end{array}\right)=𝐌\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{\zeta }_N\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{\zeta }_{N1}\hfill \end{array}\right),`$ (52)
with

$`𝐌={\displaystyle \underset{i=N}{\overset{N}{}}}𝐌_i.`$ (53)
The expression for the transmission coefficient $`\stackrel{~}{t}_q`$ for the time averaged scattering potential is then given by

$`\stackrel{~}{t}_q={\displaystyle \frac{4\mathrm{sin}^2q}{|M_{11}(q)e^{iq}+M_{12}(q)M_{21}(q)M_{22}(q)e^{iq}|^2}}`$ (54)
where $`M_{ij}`$ are the four matrix elements of the $`2\times 2`$ matrix $`𝐌`$.

## III Scattering by acoustic breathers

In this Section we study the wave scattering by so-called acoustic breathers. The corresponding systems are characterized by a gapless spectrum $`\omega _q`$ of propagating linear waves, and by a conservation of total mechanical momentum.

The generic choice for the potentials in the Eq. (2) is $`V(y)0`$ and $`W(y)=\frac{1}{2}y^2+\frac{\beta }{3}y^3+\frac{1}{4}y^4`$. This choice leads to the well known Fermi-Pasta-Ulam system . We will first consider the case $`\beta =0`$ which implies the presence of a parity in the interaction potential $`W`$ and comment on the influence of parity violation for $`\beta 0`$ later on. The dispersion relation of phonons is given by

$`|\omega _q|=2\mathrm{sin}{\displaystyle \frac{q}{2}}`$ (55)
A breather solution with frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=4.5`$ is shown in Fig.4.

The corresponding Fourier components of the scattering potential are plotted in Fig.5.

Acoustic breathers can be found with frequencies above the phonon band $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|>\mathrm{max}|\omega _q|`$. However, here we consider $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|>2\mathrm{max}|\omega _q|`$ which implies $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|>4`$. This condition is needed to realize the one-channel scattering case of linear waves. For $`\beta =0`$ the ac part of the interaction potential $`W`$ has even harmonics only, and the frequency of a propagating phonon in a closed channel $`2\mathrm{\Omega }_b\pm \omega _q`$ can not match the frequency of a local mode of the time-averaged scattering potential. Thus the closed channels play no important role in the scattering process. As a consequence the wave scattering by acoustic breathers is practically identical with the scattering by the time-averaged potential. Indeed numerical computations do not show any relevant difference between the linear wave propagation in the presence of time-dependent and the static (time-averaged) potentials. Yet there is a number of interesting features of the scattering which deserve to be exploited.

For $`V=0`$ the lattice conserves the total mechanical momentum $`P=_n\dot{x}_n`$ in addition to the energy. Without loss of generality we will choose $`P=0`$ here. From this conservation law it follows that the total mechanical momentum of the linearized problem $`\mathrm{\Pi }=_n\dot{ϵ}_n`$ is also conserved. This implies that for any solution $`ϵ_n(t)`$ the shift $`ϵ(t)+C`$ is also a solution. In particular $`ϵ_n=C`$ is a solution, which corresponds to a wave with $`q=0`$ and for which we have $`t_{q=0}=1`$. Thus we conclude that the transmission of waves by a breather for acoustic systems at $`q=0`$ is always perfect, no reflection occurs. This is in sharp contrast to systems without conservation of total mechanical momentum (see below).

The peculiar dependence of the transmission coefficient $`t_q`$ on the wave number $`q`$ and the breather frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ is shown in Fig.6. The breather frequency is varying over nearly three decades. We indeed observe perfect transmission at $`q=0`$, and zero transmission at $`q=\pi `$. However we also find that in the studied breather frequency range two rather narrow peaks around $`q=\pi `$ appear with perfect transmission. These structures are due to the detachment of localized Floquet eigenvectors from the continuum of extended Floquet eigenstates. A surprising result is shown in Fig.7. We plot the transmission $`t_q`$ at $`q=\pi /4`$ as a function of the breather frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$. We obtain plateaus and crossovers at certain breather frequencies. The crossover positions clearly correlate with the appearance of localized Floquet states, which are traced through the perfect transmission close to $`q=\pi `$ in Fig.6. The dependence of the transmission on $`q`$ for the two observed plateaus is shown in the inset of Fig.7. The plateaus range over several decades in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$, and the $`q`$-dependence of $`t_q`$ is rather similar on different plateaus.

To understand this feature we remind that large breather frequencies imply that the breather energy and its amplitude in the breather center are large as well. Thus we may neglect the harmonic part of the interaction potential $`W`$ inside the breather core. The resulting amplitude distribution of the breather core is characterized by a superexponential decay $`\widehat{x}_n(t)=A_nG(t)`$, $`A_nA_{n1}^3`$, where $`G(t)`$ is an oscillatory master function . Due to the symmetry of the breather solution the spatial profile is described by $`A_n=A_{n+1},n0`$. The amplitudes $`A_n`$ have been computed: $`A_1=1`$, $`A_20.166`$, $`A_34.79610^4`$, $`A_41.1510^{11}`$, and so on . The overall amplitude of the oscillations $`\widehat{x}_n(t)`$ is tuned by the amplitude of the master function $`G(t)`$.

The scattering is essentially described by the time-averaged scattering potential. This potential corresponds to a large increase in the nearest neighbour coupling terms. In the breather center we find

$$W^{\prime \prime }[\widehat{x}_1(t)\widehat{x}_0(t)]=1+3(\widehat{x}_1(t)\widehat{x}_0(t))^2$$
(56)
with

$$3(\widehat{x}_1(t)\widehat{x}_0(t))^2X^2\frac{2}{3\pi }\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2$$
(57)
(the details of the calculation are presented in Appendix A). Due to the large value of $`X`$ for large $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ it becomes evident that time-dependent corrections to the scattering potential are negligible. By making use of the distribution of oscillation amplitudes in the lattice we then find

$$3(\widehat{x}_n(t)\widehat{x}_{n1}(t))^2A_n^2X^2.$$
(58)
The scattering on a plateau in Fig.7 is due to a finite number of matrices $`𝐌_n`$ which should be taken into account in Eq. (53). Qualitatively the crossover threshold can be defined as

$$A_n^2X^21.$$
(59)
Thus we obtain the two crossover frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{b1}=13.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{b2}=4527`$, which match with the observed crossover positions. For $`4<\mathrm{\Omega }_b<\mathrm{\Omega }_{b1}`$ we need only 4 matrices $`𝐌_n`$, for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{b1}<\mathrm{\Omega }_b<\mathrm{\Omega }_{b2}`$, 6 matrices $`𝐌_n`$ and so on. We also computed the transmission at $`q=\pi /4`$ using the corresponding reduced set of relevant matrices. The obtained limiting values of $`t_q`$ are shown as a dashed line in Fig.7. We observe very good agreement between the predicted plateau heights and the actual data obtained in direct numerical simulations.

With the above said it becomes also transparent, why we observe detachment of localized Floquet states in the crossover region. The acoustic breather presents an effective potential well for the propagating phonons. The width of this well increases with the breather frequency, and the number of possible localized Floquet states also increases. Such a periodic appearance of perfect transmission is similar to the quantum mechanical scattering by a potential well in the presence of quasi-discrete levels .

Finally we checked the influence of $`\beta 0`$. With respect to the breather the presence of cubic terms in the interaction potential leads to the generation of a kink-shaped dc lattice distortion. The corresponding scattering potential becomes asymmetric in space and odd harmonics in the ac scattering potential appear. This immediately leads to the possibility of matching between the frequency of a propagating phonon in a closed channel $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b\omega _q`$ and several local modes of the time-averaged scattering potential. Thus, a resonant suppression of a transmission appears in this case. Indeed, we observe this effect by direct numerical simulations as shown in Fig.8, where two transmission zeros are found. We will discuss this effect in more detail for the case of optical breathers below.

## IV Scattering by acoustic rotobreathers

Remarkable differences to the results of the preceding Section are obtained if the interaction potential $`W`$ is chosen to be a periodic one (the potential $`V`$ is still zero in this Section):

$$W(y)=1\mathrm{cos}(y).$$
(60)
With such an interaction potential the nonlinear chain allows for the existence of rotobreathers (cf. Fig.1b). In the simplest case a rotobreather consists of one particle being in a rotating (whirling) state, while all others particles with spatially decaying amplitudes from the center of DB:

$`\widehat{x}_0(t+T_b)=\widehat{x}_0(t)+2\pi ,`$ (61)
$`\widehat{x}_{n0}(t+T_b)=\widehat{x}_{n0}(t),`$ (62)
$`\widehat{x}_{|n|\mathrm{}}0.`$ (63)
To excite such a rotobreather the central particle needs to overcome the potential barrier generated by its two nearest neighbors. The rotobreather energy is thus bounded from below by $`E_b>4`$. At sufficiently large energies $`E_b4`$ the central particle will perform nearly free rotations $`\widehat{x}_0(t)=\mathrm{\Omega }_bt+\delta (t)`$ with $`\delta (t+T_b)=\delta (t)`$ being a small correction. The time-averaged off-diagonal hopping terms between site $`n=0`$ and $`n=\pm 1`$ are then given by

$$\mathrm{cos}(\widehat{x}_0(t)\widehat{x}_1(t))\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }_bt)(\delta (t)\widehat{x}_1(t))$$
(64)
where $`\widehat{x}_1(t)`$ is also a small function. Thus the time-averaged scattering potential of a rotobreather presents a huge barrier that cuts the chain into nearly noninteracting parts, contrary to the previous case of an acoustic breather, where the acoustic breather potential corresponds to a potential well. Therefore it becomes extremely difficult for waves to penetrate across the rotobreather. The rotobreather solution with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=4.5`$ is shown in Fig.9.

The corresponding Fourier components of the scattering potential are shown in Fig.10.

In Fig.11 we show the $`q`$-dependence of the transmission for a rotobreather with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=4.5`$ and compare it to the corresponding curve of an acoustic breather from the preceding section. We observe a dramatic decrease of the transmission at all $`q`$-values for the rotobreather, in agreement with the above analysis.

To decide whether the time-dependence of the rotobreather scattering potential is important or not, we first make a more precise computation for (64) (details of the calculations are presented in Appendix B)

$$\mathrm{cos}(\widehat{x}_0(t)\widehat{x}_1(t))\frac{3}{2\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2}.$$
(65)
The time-averaged scattering potential for large $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ corresponds to two neighboring weak links of strength (65) inserted in a linear acoustic chain. Three matrices $`𝐌_n`$ are enough to compute the transmission. Two of them involve matrix elements which are proportional to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2`$. The elements of the product will thus contain terms proportional to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^4`$, and according to (54) the result is

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_q\mathrm{\Omega }_b^8.$$
(66)
This is precisely what we also find from a numerical evaluation of the transmission for the time-averaged scattering potential in Fig.12. However, although the transmission coefficient $`t_q`$ for the full time-dependent scattering potential also drastically decreases with $`q`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$, the dependence is weaker than for the case of time-average rotobreather potential. It scales as

$$t_q\mathrm{\Omega }_b^4$$
(67)
(see also Fig.12). The reason is that besides a weak static link the rotobreather scattering potential has an ac term at frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ of amplitude one (see Fig.10). Thus an alternative route for the wave is to approach the rotobreather, to be excited into the first closed channel, to pass the breather and to relax back into the open channel. The corresponding scattering process of ”virtual” absorption and emission of phonons from the rotobreather can be also represented by three matrices as it happens for the dc analysis. However now instead of two weak links we have links of order one with a frequency change at site $`n=0`$ from $`\omega _q`$ to $`\omega _q+\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$. This occurs in exactly one of the three matrices. Consequently the product matrix will contain elements proportional to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2`$ and the transmission will scale as (67).

We conclude this section by stressing that the wave scattering by an acoustic rotobreather is essentially relying on the time-dependence of the scattering potential. The rotobreather effectively cuts the chain in weakly interacting parts and thus hinders waves from propagation in a very strong way.

## V Optical breathers

In this Section we consider systems with a nonvanishing on-site potential $`V[x_n]0`$ (see Fig. 1c). The difference of such systems to acoustic models is the existence of a gap in the spectrum of phonons $`|\omega _{q=0}|=V^{\prime \prime }[0]`$. As a consequence the total mechanical momentum is not conserved, and the transmission coefficient now vanishes not only at $`q=\pi `$ but also at $`q=0`$. An exception is the case when a localized Floquet eigenstate bifurcates from the corresponding band edge for some special parameters . Because of the presence of a gap in the plane wave spectrum there are now two different cases of interest - the breather frequency being located outside the spectrum $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|>\mathrm{max}|\omega _q|`$ or inside the gap $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|<\mathrm{min}|\omega _q|`$.

### A The case $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|>\mathrm{max}|\omega _q|`$.

Here we choose $`V(y)=\frac{1}{2}y^2+\frac{1}{3}y^3+\frac{1}{4}y^4`$ and $`W(y)=\frac{c}{2}y^2`$.

In this case the spectrum of phonons is

$$\omega _q^2=1+4c\mathrm{sin}^2(\frac{q}{2}).$$
(68)
The breather profile for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=1.5`$ and $`c=0.05`$ is shown in Fig.13.

The corresponding Fourier components of the scattering potential are plotted in Fig.14.

We note that the DB scattering potential perturbs the diagonal terms and in this particular case ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_b>\omega _q`$) presents a barrier for propagating phonons. For large breather frequencies the breather is strongly localized, i.e. essentially only one central oscillator is excited. The time-averaged scattering potential then becomes a single diagonal defect with a large strength $`\beta _0\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2`$. It is straightforward to observe that the transmission coefficient will thus scale as (see Eq.(37))

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_q\mathrm{\Omega }_b^4.$$
(69)
Due to the fact that the transmission vanishes exactly for both $`q=0`$ and $`q=\pi `$ we conclude that for large breather frequencies transmission is suppressed in general.

However, in the case of an optical DB the time-dependent part of the DB scattering potential (more precisely its second harmonic, see Fig. 14 ) is also large as $`\beta _2\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2`$ for large values of the breather frequency. Thus, the time-dependent part of the DB potential can be rather important. Indeed, for the breather from Fig.13 the obtained transmission as a function of $`q`$ shows that $`\stackrel{~}{t}_q`$ (see Fig.15, dashed line) is at least one order of magnitude larger than $`t_q`$ (see Fig.15, solid line). In addition $`t_q`$ shows a resonant minimum around $`q=2.1`$ (see inset). Let us use the estimation (24) for $`k=1,2`$. The parameters are $`v_{0,0}=3.5,v_{0,1}=0.69,v_{0,2}=3`$. First we find that $`s_10.05`$ for all $`q`$ implying that the $`k=1`$ closed channel does not participate in the transmission process. At the same time $`s_2>10`$ for all $`q`$ and thus, the $`k=2`$ closed channel strongly participates in the transmission process. It is because the frequency of the propagating phonon $`2\mathrm{\Omega }_b\omega _q1.92`$ is close to a localized eigenmode of the time-averaged scattering potential $`\omega _L=1.9`$. Notice here that the frequency of this local mode is above the phonon band. Thus we interprete the suppression of transmission as a strong coupling between the propagating wave and a particular localized mode of the time-averaged scattering potential, mediated by the ac terms of the scattering potential (the $`k=2`$ channel in this case). However, the simple estimation based on Eq. (24) does not show the resonant suppression of transmission for a particular value of $`q`$ and therefore, in order to quantitatively describe this effect we next apply the Green function method.

By making use of the estimation (24) we take into account in (33) the terms with $`k=0`$ and $`k=\pm 2`$, i. e. the scattering on the static potential and the phonon interaction with the second harmonic of the frequency $`2\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$. Moreover, we use the fact that the DB scattering potential is a strongly localized one, and obtain (the corresponding diagram is shown in Fig. 3b)

$$G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)=\stackrel{~}{G}_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)+$$

$$+\beta _2^2\stackrel{~}{G}_{\omega _q}(n_1,0)\stackrel{~}{G}_{\mathrm{\Omega }+\omega _q}^{(rn)}(0,0)G_{\omega _q}(0,n_2),$$
(70)
where $`G_{\omega _q}(n_1,n_2)`$ is determined by $`\stackrel{~}{G}_\omega (n_1,n_2)`$ that is the Green function of propagating phonons in the presence of time-average DB potential (the corresponding diagram is shown in Fig. 3a):

$$\stackrel{~}{G}_\omega (n_1,n_2)=G_\omega ^0(n_1,n_2)\beta _0G_\omega ^0(n_1,0)\stackrel{~}{G}_\omega (0,n_2).$$
(71)
Moreover, the central part of Eq. (70), namely $`\stackrel{~}{G}_{\mathrm{\Omega }+\omega _q}^{(rn)}(0,0)`$, has a resonant form:

$$\stackrel{~}{G}_{\mathrm{\Omega }+\omega _q}^{(rn)}(0,0)=\frac{1}{\omega _L^2(\mathrm{\Omega }\omega _q)^2},$$
(72)
where the local phonon mode frequency $`\omega _L`$ is mostly determined by a time-average scattering potential. However, in the case as the phonon band is narrow ($`c1`$) the renormalization of $`\omega _L`$ due to the ac nonresonant processes has to be taken into account (the corresponding diagram is shown in Fig. 3c). The Eqs. (70) and (71) can be solved and we obtain

$$G_{\omega _q}(0,n_2)=\frac{G_{\omega _q}^0(0,n_2)}{1+(\beta _0\beta _2^2\stackrel{~}{G}_{\mathrm{\Omega }+\omega _q}^{(rn)}(0,0))G_{\omega _q}^0(0,0)}.$$
(73)
Thus, we arrive at the expression (37) for the transmission coefficient $`t_q`$ but with the renormalized wave number dependent parameter $`\beta `$

$$\beta =\beta _0\frac{\beta _2^2}{\omega _L^2(2\mathrm{\Omega }_b\omega _q)^2}.$$
(74)
As the breather frequency is large ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_b1`$) both transmission coefficients for the static DB scattering potential and for the full time-periodic DB scattering potential, decrease with the breather frequency according to (69). However, the effective potential strength $`|\beta |`$ is larger than $`\beta _0`$ and correspondingly the transmission $`t_q`$ is smaller compared to the transmission on the static DB scattering potential. Indeed, we observed this behaviour by direct numerical simulations (see Fig. 16).

A most peculiar effect is that the presence of ac term in a scattering potential allows to tune the frequency of a local mode and to obtain the resonant suppression of transmission. Indeed by taking into account the type of diagrams shown in Fig. 3c we obtain for the renormalized local mode frequency $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_L`$

$$\stackrel{~}{\omega }_L^2=\omega _L^2+\frac{\beta _2^2}{(4\mathrm{\Omega }_b\omega _q)^2\omega _L^2}.$$
(75)
This formula is valid in the limit $`\beta _22\sqrt{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ . For the particular case of the DB with frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=1.5`$ and $`\beta _2=v_{02}/2=1.5`$ we find that the resonant value of $`q2`$ is remarkably close to the resonant suppression of $`t_q`$ around $`q=2.1`$. Thus a strong dependence of $`\omega _L`$ on the amplitude of the ac part of DB scattering potential, and therefore, on the breather frequency, allows easily to change a position of the resonance.

Note here, that taking into account the static part and the second harmonic of the DB potential allows to obtain a good agreement with the direct numerical simulations of a scattering by the ”full” DB (compare solid and dashed lines in Fig. 15). It is also interesting to mention that the static part and the first harmonic of the DB potential ($`k=1`$) lead to an increase of the transmission coefficient compared to the scattering by the time-averaged DB potential. It is just due to the interplay between the strengths of different channels of the scattering potential (see Eq. (74)).

Thus, we conclude that the presence of a closed channel allowing absorption and emission of phonons around the center of the breather leads to strong interference effects which are of destructive nature in the given example of optical breather.

### B The case $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b|<\mathrm{min}|\omega _q|`$

Here we choose the on-site potential in the form $`V(y)=\frac{1}{2}y^2\frac{1}{3}y^3`$ (note here that the results do not change if the cubic term has a positive sign) and the interaction term $`W(y)=\frac{c}{2}y^2`$. The breather profile for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=0.85`$ and $`c=0.15`$ is shown in Fig.17.

The corresponding Fourier components of the scattering potential are plotted in Fig.18.

In this case the time-averaged DB scattering potential corresponds to a potential well in the diagonal terms, i. e. the parameter $`\beta _0`$ in Eq. (71) has a negative sign. It leads again to the possibility to obtain a resonance as the frequency of an active closed channel matches the frequency of a localized phonon mode located in the phonon gap. Moreover, at variance to the optical DB with large frequency (preceding subsection), the number of active closed channels may now increase substantially. This leads to a more complicated interference scenario between the open channel and several closed channels. Indeed, the estimation of $`s_{k=1,2}`$ shows that the first channel is strongly contributing, and the second closed channel can not be neglected either. At variance to the previous case for all propagating phonon frequencies the $`k=1`$ closed channel has a much stronger contribution than the $`k=2`$ one. However, we expect a resonant coupling between the propagating wave and the local mode through the $`k=2`$ closed channel, as $`|\omega _{q=0}2\mathrm{\Omega }_b|=0.7`$ is close to a local eigenmode of the time-averaged scattering potential with frequency $`\omega _L=\pm 0.78`$. Moreover, the nonresonant processes in a strong $`k=1`$ channel allow to renormalize $`\omega _L`$ similarly to the previous case of an optical breather with a large frequency. This resonant effect can be analyzed by making use of Eqs. (37), (70)-(74). Indeed, due to the resonance with a localized phonon mode the Green function $`\stackrel{~}{G}_{2\mathrm{\Omega }_b+\omega _q}^{(rn)}(0,0)1`$ for a particular wave number $`q_0`$. In this case the parameter $`\beta `$ goes to infinity as the resonant condition, $`(2\mathrm{\Omega }_b\omega _{q_0})^2\omega _L^2=0`$, is valid and correspondingly the transmission coefficient vanishes. . As the phonon frequency deviates from the resonant condition, the parameter $`\beta `$ decreases and correspondingly the transmission coefficient reaches a maximum (see Fig. 19).

In Fig.19 we show that the time-averaged DB scattering potential provides with perfect transmission at a certain wave number due to the presence of a quasi-bound state in the static scattering potential. At the same time the transmission for the full dynamical problem shows a maximum value of 0.1, and an additional minimum in $`t(q)`$ with actually a full vanishing of transmission. These patterns are entirely absent in the scattering by the time-averaged potential. Thus we again conclude that the presence of active closed channels inside the breather core leads to strong interference effects.

## VI Discussion

In this paper we considered the propagation of small-amplitude phonons through a nonlinear lattice in the presence of various discrete breathers. In particular, we obtained the transmission coefficient $`t_q`$ for the cases of acoustic and optical discrete breathers, and acoustic rotobreathers. We have shown that the presence of a DB leads to an effective scattering potential for phonons and this potential contains both static (time-averaged) parts and time-dependent periodic parts where the first and second harmonics are most important. Moreover, the strength and the width of the scattering potential are determined by the breather frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$.

The static part of the effective DB scattering potential may fully describe the scattering outcome if the closed channels weakly contribute (acoustic breather with $`\beta =0`$). Equally the leading contribution to a finite transmission may come from a closed channel (acoustic rotobreather). A very interesting case is realized when a local mode of the time-averaged scattering potential resonates with a closed channel (acoustic breather with $`\beta 0`$, optical breathers). This resonance leads to a full suppression of transmission at some value of $`q`$. The nonresonant closed channels renormalize the local mode frequency and the corresponding position of the transmission zero in $`q`$. This effect has been discussed in several papers in relation to the Fano resonance . A detailed explanation of the similarities and differences to the physics of a Fano resonances is beyond the scope of this work and will be published separately. It is worthwhile to note here that the location of a zero transmission value in $`q`$ is not related to the presence of so-called quasi-bound Floquet states, i.e. states which by parameter tuning are transformed from a localized state into one colliding (interacting) with the continous part of the Floquet spectrum. Instead a formally exact definition of a zero transmission is given in  through the asymptotic phase properties of Floquet eigenstates far from the breather center.

The phonon scattering by inhomogeneities can be relevant with respect to the ongoing discussion about finite vs. infinite heat conductivity in acoustic chains with conservation of total mechanical momentum Ref. . The heat conductivity $`\kappa `$ mediated by noninteracting phonons is determined as

$$\kappa L𝑑qT_q(L),$$
(76)
where $`L`$ is the size of the system. Here $`T_q(L)`$ denotes the transmission of the given system. Thus, obviously in the absence of inhomogeneities the phonon heat conductivity goes to infinity ($`\kappa L`$) as the size of the system $`L`$ increases. However, the situation becomes more complex in the presence of inhomogeneities. In the case, when the inhomogeneities are randomly distributed along the system, the number of inhomogeneities $`N=nL`$, where $`n`$ is the concentration of defects, and the total transmission $`T_q(L)t_q^N`$ with $`t_q`$ being the transmission through a given defect. We obtain that the behaviour of heat conductivity is determined by the values of $`q`$ where $`t_q`$ is close to one. Thus, the problem of an infinite heat conductivity in the limit of a large size $`L`$ naturally appears in the systems preserving the total mechanical momentum.

In particular we can apply this general consideration to the phonon propagation in the presence of DBs. In the most interesting case of acoustic rotobreathers we obtain that the transmission coefficient $`t_q1\alpha q^2`$ in the limit of small wave numbers. The coefficient $`\alpha `$ is determined by the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ and the specific choice of the acoustic rotobreather. Thus we argue that the mere presence of acoustic rotobreathers does not lead to a finite heat conductivity and $`\kappa `$ is still divergent in the limit of large $`L`$ as

$$\kappa \sqrt{\frac{L}{n\alpha }}.$$
(77)
Here we assume that the heat is carried by phonons, and did not take into account phonon-phonon interactions. Another conclusion drawn from our results for acoustic breathers versus acoustic rotobreathers is that the $`q`$-domain around $`q=0`$ where the transmission is close to one is by orders of magnitude smaller for acoustic rotobreathers as compared to acoustic breathers. This region is responsible for the quasiballistic transport of energy by large wavelength phonons in the hydrodynamic regime and for the appearance of anomalous heat conductivity. Numerical simulations for systems with acoustic rotobreathers have to be performed on length and time scales which are thus also orders of magnitude larger than the corresponding simulations for standard FPU chains.

Our analysis can be also applied to the electromagnetic wave propagation through various Josephson transmission lines. Although these systems are intrinsically dissipative, the dissipation may be rather small, and the transmission $`t_q`$ is still determined by the presence of inhomogeneities like rotobreathers  or dynamic edge states. Moreover, in this particular case of Josephson lattices the properties of DBs can be easily tuned experimentally by changing the external dc bias. Notice here that local phonon modes located on a rotobreather play an important role in various switching processes . A study of an electromagnetic wave propagation may allow a direct observation of this mode.

Finally, a similar analysis can be carried out for a Schrödinger equation in the presence of artificially applied time-periodic perturbations . This case is important for the description of electron transport through a quantum wire in the presence of external electromagnetic fields.
Acknowledgements
We thank S. Aubry, G. Casati, S. Kim and L. E. Reichl for useful discussions. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft FL200/8-1. M. V. F. thank the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung for partial supporting this work.

## A Time-averaged scattering potential for acoustic breather

We take into account the oscillations of two lattice sites in the center of a DB only. These oscillations evolve exactly in antiphase with large amplitudes. The effective Hamiltonian is written as

$`E={\displaystyle \frac{\dot{x}_1^2}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{x}_2^2}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(x_1^4+x_2^4+(x_1x_2)^4)`$ (A1)
and with $`x_1=x_2`$, we arrive at the single oscillator problem with energy

$`E=\dot{x}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}x^4.`$ (A2)
The frequency of oscillation (the breather frequency) is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }_b}}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{x_m}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{\sqrt{E\frac{9}{2}x^4}}},`$ (A3)
where $`x_m=\sqrt[4]{\frac{2E}{9}}`$. After integration we obtain

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_b={\displaystyle \frac{2\pi \sqrt[4]{\frac{9E}{2}}}{B(\frac{1}{4},\frac{1}{2})}},`$ (A4)
where $`B(x,y)`$ is the $`B`$-function . Next we compute the value of $`X=\sqrt{3x^2}`$. We can express $`x^2`$ in terms of the energy

$`x^2={\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{\Omega }_b}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{x_m}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{x^2dx}{\sqrt{E\frac{9}{2}x^4}}}.`$ (A5)
After some algebra we find $`x^2=\sqrt{\frac{2E}{9}}\frac{B(\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{4})}{B(\frac{1}{4},\frac{1}{2})}`$ and

$`X=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3\pi }}}\mathrm{\Omega }_b.`$ (A6)
## B Time-averaged scattering potential for acoustic rotobreather

In order to calculate the time-averaged off-diagonal hopping terms we will take into account the central site which is in a rotational state, denoted by $`\varphi `$, and two nearest neighbor oscillators (denoted by $`\alpha _1`$ and $`\alpha _2`$). Thus we conserve the total mechanical momentum. The energy of such a system is

$`E=\dot{\alpha }^2+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\varphi }^2}{2}}+2(1\mathrm{cos}(\varphi \alpha )).`$ (B1)
The two equations of motion are given by

$`\begin{array}{c}\ddot{\varphi }=2\mathrm{sin}(\varphi \alpha ),\hfill \\ \ddot{\alpha }=\mathrm{sin}(\varphi \alpha ).\hfill \end{array}`$ (B4)
Introducing new variables $`u=\varphi +2\alpha `$ and $`w=\varphi \alpha `$ we rewrite the system (B4) as

$`\begin{array}{c}\ddot{u}=0,\hfill \\ \ddot{w}=3\mathrm{sin}w.\hfill \end{array}`$ (B7)
The relevant energy part is

$$\stackrel{~}{E}=\frac{\dot{w}^2}{2}+3(1\mathrm{cos}w).$$
(B8)
Now we compute the average coupling between rotational and oscillatory states for large frequencies

$`ϵ=\mathrm{cos}w={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_b}{2\pi \sqrt{2\stackrel{~}{E}}}}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{2\pi }{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}wdw}{\sqrt{1\frac{3(1\mathrm{cos}w)}{\stackrel{~}{E}}}}}.`$ (B9)
Because $`\stackrel{~}{E}\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2}{2}`$ we find

$`ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_b}{2\pi \sqrt{2\stackrel{~}{E}}}}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{2\pi }{}}}(1+{\displaystyle \frac{3(1\mathrm{cos}w)}{2\stackrel{~}{E}}})\mathrm{cos}wdw`$ (B10)
which leads to

$`ϵ={\displaystyle \frac{3\mathrm{\Omega }_b}{4\sqrt{2}\stackrel{~}{E}^{3/2}}}`$ (B11)
and finally to

$`ϵ={\displaystyle \frac{3}{2\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2}}.`$ (B12)


format: text

text:
# Common energy scale for magnetism and superconductivity in cuprates

## Abstract

Many compounds based on CuO2 planes (cuprates) superconduct below a critical temperature $`T_c`$. Some of them show a second phase where a spontaneous static magnetic field appears below a critical temperature $`T_g`$, which is lower than $`T_c`$. By comparing $`T_c`$ and $`T_g`$ in numerous superconducting families, each with its own maximum $`T_c`$, we find that the same energy scale determines both critical temperatures. This clearly indicates that the origin of superconductivity in the cuprates is magnetic.

Comment: This is an updated version of the original paper published in Phys. Rev. B 68, 012507 (2003) and includes new YBa2Cu3O6+y data from Ref.SannaPrivate

One of the most challenging tasks of solid-state physics today is to understand the mechanism for superconductivity in cuprates. These materials, which have a relatively high critical temperature $`T_c`$, are based on doped CuO2 planes. Since at zero doping they are antiferromagnets, several theories ascribe their superconductivity to holes interacting via a magnetic medium Theory1 ; Theory2 . Yet the phenomenon of superconductivity begins at doping levels in which magnetism almost disappears, and therefore there is no clear evidence relating the two. Fortunately, there is a narrow doping range in which superconductivity and magnetism, in the form of randomly oriented static spins (a spin glass), co-exist below a critical temperature $`T_g<T_c`$. We thus focus on this doping range and examine $`T_g`$ and $`T_c`$ in numerous superconducting families, which are distinct in the sense that each one has its own maximum $`T_c`$ \[$`T_c^{max}`$\]. We find that in all cases a common energy scale controls both critical temperatures. Therefore magnetism and superconductivity in the cuprates are different facets of the same Hamiltonian.

The families for which both $`T_g`$ and $`T_c`$ data exist are: (CaxLa1-x)(Ba1.75-xLa0.25+x)Cu3O6+y \[CLBLCO\] KanigelPRL02 , La2-ySryCuO4 \[LSCO\] NiedermayerPRL98 ; PanaPRB02 , Y1-yCayBa2Cu3O6 \[YCBCO\] NiedermayerPRL98 , Bi2.1Sr1.9Ca1-xYxCu2O8+y \[Bi-2212\] PanaPRB02 , and YBa2Cu3O6+y \[YBCO\] SannaPrivate . Several groups including ours gathered the data, and the determination of $`T_g`$ was done using the $`\mu `$SR technique. In this technique one implants fully polarized positive muons in a sample and measures the time dependence of their polarization $`P_z(t)`$. This polarization changes dramatically when static magnetic fields appear. This is demonstrated for a superconducting compound from the CLBLCO family with $`T_c=33.1`$K in Fig. 1, which is taken from Ref. KanigelPRL02  for completion. Between $`T=40`$ and $`8`$ K, $`P_z(t)`$ is typical for muon polarization in an environment where the magnetic field emanates from nuclear moments. We denote this polarization by $`P_z^{\mathrm{}}(t)`$. At about $`T=7.4`$K a fast relaxation component appears, which is due to some additional strong magnetic field. As the temperature is lowered the fast relaxing component grows at the expense of the slow one, and at a temperature of $`0.37`$K, no slow relaxing component is observed. In addition, at this temperature the polarization saturates at long times at $`1/3`$ of its initial value. This is typical for randomly frozen magnetic fields where $`1/3`$ of the fields happen to point in the direction of the muon spin.

In order to determine $`T_g`$ quantitatively all authors effectively fit their data to

$$P_z(t)=A_m\mathrm{exp}[(\lambda t)^\beta ]+A_nP_z^{\mathrm{}}(t)$$
(1)
where $`\lambda `$ is a relaxation rate, and the amplitudes $`A_m`$ and $`A_n`$ represent muons in magnetic and normal environments. However, different authors use different parameters in the fit function for the determination of $`T_g`$. We will show below that this has no bearing on our final conclusion. In particular, we fit Eq. 1 to the data in Fig. 1 with $`\beta =1/2`$ and $`A_m+A_n`$ common to all temperatures. In Fig. 2 we present $`A_m`$ as a function of temperature for three different samples of the CLBLCO family with x=0.3. As expected $`A_m`$ grows as the temperature decreases and saturates. Our criterion for $`T_g`$ is the temperature at which $`A_m`$ is half of its saturation value as demonstrated by the vertical lines. This figure demonstrates the sensitivity of $`T_g`$ to doping.

In order to quantify the relation between $`T_g`$ and $`T_c`$ we distinguish between two kinds of holes. The first kind we call *mobile* holes, and their doping level is $`p_m`$. The second kind is the usual *chemical* holes and their doping level is denoted by $`p`$. The reason for this distinction is that the only experimental known value is that of the chemical formula of the compounds, namely, the $`x`$ and $`y`$ values. Theoretical arguments relate $`x`$ and $`y`$ to $`p`$ BrownSSC91 ; TallonPhysicaC90 ; ChmaissemPRB01 , but the accuracy of these relations is debatable ChmaissemPRB01 . By introducing $`p_m`$ we allow for an additional scaling parameter, which could be determined experimentally, and could lead to a comparison between different compounds. An equally good name for $`p_m`$ could have been “corrected hole doping”. The scaling parameter is determined as follows. First we convert the $`T_g`$ and $`T_c`$ values of all material to be functions of $`p`$.

The case of LSCO, YCBCO, Bi-2212, and YBCO is immediate since the authors of Ref. NiedermayerPRL98 ; PanaPRB02 ; SannaPrivate  present their data in this way. For CLBLCO however $`T_g`$ and $`T_c`$ are given as a function of $`y`$ KanigelPRL02 . We assume the relation $`p=0.205+y/3`$ obtained from simple valance counting. Second, we define $`p^{opt}`$ as chemical hole doping at optimum, where optimum means $`T_c^{\mathrm{max}}`$, and introduce $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=pp^{opt}`$. Finally we write

$$\mathrm{\Delta }p_m=K_f\mathrm{\Delta }p$$
(2)
where $`K_f`$ is the scaling parameter that is different for the various cuprate families. We interpret $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$ as $`p_mp_m^{opt}`$ where $`p_m^{opt}`$ is the number of mobile holes at optimum. This point requires extra attention; the scaling we perform between chemical and mobile holes is done by counting them from optimum, and not from $`p=0`$. We determine $`K_f`$ from experimental data by making $`T_c/T_c^{max}`$, for all the families, collapse onto one curve resembling the curve of La2-ySryCuO4, since in this case it is believed that $`p_m=p`$. This is demonstrated in Fig. 3a. It should be pointed out that LSCO serves only as a reference, and whether $`p_m=p`$ for this compound or not has no bearing on our conclusions. A summary of $`p^{opt}`$, $`K_f`$ and $`T_c^{\mathrm{max}}`$ is given in table 1. In Fig. 3b we also plot $`T_g/T_c^{max}`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$ (using the previously determined values of $`K_f`$). Magically, $`T_g/T_c^{max}`$ also collapse onto one line for all the cuprates we have examined. The line, depicted in Fig. 3b, is described by

$$T_g/T_c^{max}=0.223.2\mathrm{\Delta }p_m.$$
(3)
Up to date this type of scaling was demonstrated only for the CLBLCO family KanigelPRL02 .

It is important to mention that Eq. 3 is independent of the criteria used to determine $`T_g`$. In the case of LSCO, for example, $`T_g`$ was determined from Eq. 1 by two different methods. (I) The temperature at which $`\beta =1/2`$; a behavior typical of spin glasses at $`T_g`$ PanaPRB02 . (II) The temperature where $`\lambda `$, obtained only from fit to the long time data with $`\beta =1`$, has a peak; a common feature of all magnets upon freezing NiedermayerPRL98 . Both methods agree with each other PanaPRB02 .

We interpret the scaling of Fig. 3 as follows: The Uemura relations UemuraPRL89  and recent theories of hole pair boson motion in an antiferromagnetic background Theory2  suggest that $`T_c`$ is proportional to $`n_s`$ with a proportionality constant $`J_f`$, where the subscript $`f`$ stands for family, namely,

$$T_c=J_fn_s(\mathrm{\Delta }p_m).$$
(4)
The reason different families have different $`T_c^{\mathrm{max}}=J_fn_s(0)`$ is because $`J_f`$ varies from one family to the next, but $`n_s(\mathrm{\Delta }p_m)`$ does not. Therefore,

$$T_c/T_c^{\mathrm{max}}=n_s(\mathrm{\Delta }p_m)/n_s(0).$$
(5)
is a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$ for all cuprate families. Using Eq. 3 this gives

$$T_g=J_fn_s(0)\left(0.223.2\mathrm{\Delta }p_m\right).$$

Thus, the successes of the simultaneous scaling of $`T_c`$ and $`T_g`$ for all the compounds discussed here suggests that the same energy scale $`J_f`$ controls both the superconducting and magnetic transitions in all cuprates.

At first this result seems surprising, since it is believed that in the antiferromagnetic phase of the cuprates there are three magnetic energy scales. The isotropic in plane Heisenberg coupling $`J`$, and the in-plane and out-of-plane anisotropy energies $`J\alpha _{xy}`$ and $`J\alpha _{}`$ respectively. However, Keimer *et al.* showed that the Néel temperature $`T_N`$ depends only logaritmically on both anisotropies $`\alpha _{xy}`$ and $`\alpha _{}`$ KeimerPRB92 . It is conceivable that this is also the situation in the glassy phase. In that case the energy scale of $`T_g`$ will be set only by $`J`$. Another two dimensional theory that appears to support the existence of glassy freezing is given in Ref. BarneaCondmat03 .

Further insight could be achieved by assuming a linear relation between $`n_s`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$, namely,

$$n_s(\mathrm{\Delta }p_m)=\alpha (p_m^{opt}+\mathrm{\Delta }p_m).$$
(6)
If all the mobile holes had turned into Cooper pairs we would have $`\alpha `$ $`=1/2`$ . Taking $`p_m^{opt}=0.16`$, we find from Eqs. 3 and 6

$$T_g/T_c^{\mathrm{max}}=0.3\left[1c_g\times n_s(\mathrm{\Delta }p_m)\right]$$
(7)
where $`c_g=10.6/\alpha `$. This equation could be used to predict $`T_g`$ for compounds in which the magnetic transition is not found yet.

Finally, it is important to demonstrate that the simultaneous scaling of $`T_g`$ and $`T_c`$ is a property of clean superconductors and does not work in all cases. A perfect example for a scaling failure is given by La2-ySryCu1-xZnxO4 \[LSCZO\] PanaPRB02 . Here samples with the same amount of Zn are considered to be one family of HTSC with its own $`T_c^{\mathrm{max}}`$. The reduction of $`T_c^{\mathrm{max}}`$ with increasing Zn concentration is a result of the increasing impurity scattering rates since the Zn reside in the CuO2 plane. As demonstrated in Fig. 4, the scaling transformation that makes all $`T_c`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$ domes collapse into one function does not apply for $`T_g`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$. The parameters used to generate this plot are also given in table 1. The failure of the scaling suggests that a mechanism with a different energy scale is involved in the reduction of $`T_c`$ when impurities are present. Interestingly the two data sets of $`T_g/T_c^{\mathrm{max}}`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_m`$ for the impure cases do full on the same line.

We conclude that the variation of $`T_c`$ between different superconducting families, based on CuO2 planes, is a consequence of variations in the strength of the magnetic interactions.

We would like to thank the PSI and ISIS facilities for their kind hospitality and continuing support of this project. We acknowledge very helpful discussions with A. Auerbach and E. Altman. We are grateful for S. Sanna and R. Derenzi for providing their data prior to publication. The Israeli Science Foundation and the EU-TMR program funded this work.


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# On the origin of the torus and jet-like structures in the centre of Crab Nebula

## 1 Introduction

The Crab Nebula is powered by the wind of a relativistic $`e^\pm `$ plasma from pulsar PSR 0531+21. The wind is terminated by a shock front. The particles of the wind are redistributed in energy and their motion is randomised at the shock. Downstream of the shock (in the nebula) they emit synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation (Kennel & Coroniti, 1984; De Jager & Harding, 1992; Aharonian & Atoyan, 1998). Detection of these emissions is still the only way to obtain information about the wind (see however Bogovalov & Aharonian (2000)). Observations in the X-ray (Brinkman et al., 1985; Weisskopf et al., 2000) and optical (Hester et al., 1995) have revealed a remarkable torus as well as jet-like structures in the central part of the Crab Nebula. The mechanism which produces these structures apparently gives rise to similar features observed around the Vela pulsar (Pavlov et al., 2000, 2001; Helfand et al., 2001), PSR 1509-58 (Kaspi et al., 2001) and in the supernova remnants G0.9+1 (Gaensler et al., 2001) and G54.1+0.3 (Lu et al., 2002). The understanding of this mechanism will certainly give us new information about pulsar winds.

The integral characteristics of the Crab Nebula are described by the theory of Kennel & Coroniti (1984). This theory explains well the spectra and luminosity of the Crab Nebula in photon energy range from eV up to TeV gamma-rays (Aharonian & Atoyan, 1998). However, Kennel & Coroniti (1984) strongly simplified the physics of the nebula. They assumed that pulsar winds are isotropic. Therefore, this theory in it’s original form is not able in principle to explain nonuniform structures observed in the Crab Nebula.

Analysis shows that magnetic collimation of the pulsar winds into jets is impossible in conventional theories of the pulsar winds (Begelman & Li, 1992; Beskin et al., 1998; Bogovalov & Tsinganos, 1999). Therefore, it is very difficult to interpret the observed jets as the result of collimation of the pulsar winds (Lyubarsky & Eichler, 2001). The observation of the torus leads to the natural conclusion that the acceleration of the wind basically occurs near the equatorial plane (Aschenbach & Brinkmann, 1975). It was shown recently (Bogovalov & Khangoulian, 2002)(hereafter Paper I) that the formation of the torus and jets directly follows from conventional theories of the pulsar winds if the longitudinal distribution of the energy flux in the wind is taken into account. This work is the direct continuation of Paper I. Our main goal in this paper is to estimate the surface synchrotron brightness of the central part of the Crab Nebula and to compare the results of these estimates with observations.

## 2 Calculation of the surface brightness

Pulsar winds have anisotropic distribution of energy flux (Bogovalov, 1999). The particle flux can be considered to be more or less isotropic. The key point of our approach is that when this circumstance is taken into account, the Lorentz factor of the wind from the Crab pulsar should depend on polar angle $`\theta `$ as follows (Bogovalov & Aharonian, 2000; Bogovalov & Khangoulian, 2002):

$$\gamma =\gamma _0+\gamma _m\mathrm{sin}^2\theta ,$$
(1)
here $`\gamma _0200`$ is the initial Lorentz factor of the wind (Daugherty & Harding, 1982), and $`\gamma _m=(\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }R_{}}{c})^3\frac{B_0^2}{4\pi n_0mc^2}10^610^7`$. $`n_0`$, $`B_0`$ are the initial plasma density and the magnetic field on the surface of the pulsar with radius $`R_{}`$ (Bogovalov, 1999). The interaction of this wind with the uniform interstellar medium results in the formation of a low density “hot” region near the equatorial plane and high density but “cold” jet-like features along the rotational axis (Paper I).

In this paper we use the same assumptions as in the paper I. The most important of them are the following. Calculations of the synchrotron volume emissivity in the conventional Kennel & Coroniti approach show that only the X-ray torus should be detected, while the jet-like features should be invisible in X-rays (Paper I). It is easy to understand why. In the calculations of the volume synchrotron emissivity $`I(r,\theta )`$ it was assumed (as by Kennel & Coroniti) that the power law spectrum of electrons is formed at the shock. The evolution of the electron spectrum is defined by synchrotron cooling. The losses on the expansion of the nebula are neglected (for details see Paper I). All the energy of the electrons injected into the plerion is radiated as synchrotron radiation. In this case the total synchrotron luminosity $`I(r,\theta )r^2𝑑r`$ integrated along a flow line at angle $`\theta `$ is simply proportional to the energy density flux injected into the nebula at given angle $`\theta `$ (Aharonian, 2002). Thus, torus-like emission is formed, since the energy density flux is $`\gamma _0+\gamma _m\mathrm{sin}^2\theta `$. This implies that the brightness distribution in the torus depends basically on the energy flux distribution and is less dependent on the distribution of the particle flux in the pulsar wind.

We have assumed an additional acceleration of the electrons in the volume of the plerion with the amount of the accelerated electrons proportional to the local density of plasma to brighten the jet-like features in the post shock region (Paper I). Some evidence that the population of the electrons in the “jets” really differs from the population of the electrons responsible for the emission in the torus follows from XMM-Newton observations (Willingale et al., 2001)

The surface brightness is calculated for the inclination angle of the equatorial plane in relation to an observer of $`33^{}`$ (Hester et al., 1995).

It has been proposed by Pelling et al. (1987) that the high brightness of the Nort western part of the torus relative to the low brightness of its opposite part is due to the relativistic boosting of photons. We took into account this effect. The photon flux from different parts of the nebula has been transformed according to the equation (Lind & Blandford, 1985)

$$F(e)=s^{2+\beta }F^{^{}}(e),$$
(2)
where $`e`$ is the photon energy, $`s=(\gamma (1\mathrm{𝐯𝐧}))^1`$, $`𝐧`$ is the unit vector directed to the observer, and $`𝐯`$ is the local bulk motion velocity of the plasma. In the range $`e=4001000\mathrm{eV}`$ $`\beta `$ is close to 2 (Aharonian & Atoyan, 1998; Willingale et al., 2001).

## 3 Comparison with observations

The results of our calculations of the surface brightness of the nebula are shown in Fig. 1. It is seen that indeed we obtain the torus of synchrotron radiation and two jet-like structures. The letter are visible due to the additional component of the accelerated particles.

The calculated radial distribution in surface brightness of the torus in the equatorial plane corresponds well to that observed. The maximum in brightness is reached at a distance of $`40\mathrm{}`$, which is close to the radius of the outer torus of $`38\mathrm{}`$ (Weisskopf et al., 2000). The calculated torus is evidently wider than the observed one in the direction perpendicular to the equatorial plane. This is the first essential difference between the calculations and observations.

The second difference is that the brightness difference of the torus edges directed from us and toward us is evidently smaller than in the observed torus (Weisskopf et al., 2000). The calculated picture is rather symmetric. Careful inspection of fig. 1 shows that the relativistic boosting only slightly changes the relative brightness of the opposite edges of the nebula. This happens because the regions of maximum brightness are located at a distance of $`3r_{sh}`$ where the plasma velocity falls down below $`\frac{c}{27}`$. Relativistic corrections (2) are rather small here.

We guess that these two disagreements between the calculated picture and the observed one are of general origin. We assumed that the flow downstream the shock remains radial. This is rather crude approximation. Our analysis of the flow downstream of the shock (Paper I) and direct numerical time-dependent simulations of the interaction of the anisotropic wind with the interstellar medium (Koldoba & Ustyugova, 2002) show that the wind is strongly deflected to the equatorial plane after the shock. This happens firstly at the shock. It is easy to make sure that the flow lines diverge to the equator at the shock front. Downstream of the shock the flow is further compressed to the equator by the pressure gradient. It is clear that if this effect is taken into account, the synchrotron torus will have a smaller width across the equatorial plane. In addition, the compression of the post shock flow to the equator will result in a slower decrease of the velocity with $`r`$. The effect of the relativistic boosting will be more stronger. Therefore, we believe that the disagreements between the calculations and the observations found at the present stage of our analysis are due to the used approximations. These disagreements can be reduced or may be removed altogether through a more accurate treatment of the flow in the post shock region.

The shape of the calculated jet-like structures differs from the observed “jets” as well. The observed “jets” are more laterally extended and expand with distance from the center. This disagreement is due to the assumption that the additional acceleration of the particles is simply proportional to the plasma density in the post shock region. At least two effects will result in better agreement with the observations. The first one is the deflection of the flow lines away from the rotational axis as it follows from real dynamics of the plasma in the post shock region. The second one is an averaging of the density and magnetic field near the rotational axis at the development of the kink instability, which must take place for the configuration of the magnetic field formed in the post shock region (Paper I). More accurate treatment of all these processes will result in better agreement of the theoretically predicted brightness distribution of the X-ray Crab Nebula with observations.

## 4 Conclusion

The fact that the morphology of the central part of the Crab Nebula can be explained in frameworks of the theory developed by Rees & Gunn (1974); Kennel & Coroniti (1984); Emmering & Chevalier (1987) is the basic result of our work. The elucidation of the nature of the torus and jets opens for us new horizons. In particular, comparison of the observed brightness distribution of the torus with calculations based on an accurate modelling of the plasma flow in the post shock region will open the way to obtain observational information about the energy flux distribution in the pulsar wind.

## Acknowledgments

The work is performed under support of collaborative INTAS-ESA grant N 120-99. We are grateful to Felix Aharonian, for important comments. S.V. acknowledges R.Sunyaev,H.Spruit, J.Trümper and B.Aschenbach for useful discussion of the problem. The authors thank Richard Tuffs for help in preparation of the manuscript.


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# One-qubit reduced states of a pure many-qubit state: polygon inequalities

(15 August 2002)

## Abstract

We show that a necessary and sufficient condition for a set of $`n`$ one-qubit mixed states to be the reduced states of a pure $`n`$-qubit state is that their smaller eigenvalues should satisfy polygon inequalities: each of them must be no greater than the sum of the others.

In this paper we study the quantum analogue of the marginal distributions of a joint probability distribution. The results reveal some surprising aspects of pure states of multipartite quantum systems.

In a pure state of many particles, each subset $`P`$ of the particles is in a mixed state $`\rho _P`$, the *reduced state* of the subset $`P`$. These reduced states are subject to conditions such as the consistency conditions

$$\mathrm{tr}_Q\rho _{PQ}=\mathrm{tr}_R\rho _{PR}$$
(1)
for any subsets $`P,Q,R`$ such that $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are disjoint and $`P`$ and $`R`$ are disjoint. However, equations of this type do not exhaust the conditions: Linden, Popescu and Wootters NoahSanduBill:marginals  have given an example of a set of three two-qubit density matrices which satisfy all such conditions but cannot be the reduced two-qubit states of a pure state of three qubits. Another example is given by the system of four qubits, in which it is impossible for all three reduced two-qubit states to be totally mixed bobcarol  though all the consistency conditions (1) are satisfied. The full set of conditions is not known.

In this paper we completely determine the possible one-qubit reduced states of a pure state of $`n`$ qubits. (There is no problem for mixed states, since any $`n`$ one-qubit mixed states $`\rho _1,\mathrm{}\rho _n`$ are the reduced states of the $`n`$-qubit mixed state $`\rho _1\mathrm{}\rho _n`$.) This is equivalent to determining the set of possible eigenvalues for each qubit, i.e. the marginal probability distributions. Brun and Cohen BrunCohen:3qubits  have pointed out that in the case $`n=3`$ the determinants of the reduced states must satisfy triangle inequalities, but not every set of three $`2\times 2`$ density matrices satisfying these inequalities is a possible set of reduced states of a pure three-qubit state. We will show that such density matrices must satisfy the stronger condition that their smaller eigenvalues satisfy triangle inequalities. For $`n`$ qubits, a necessary condition is the obvious generalisation of the triangle inequalities:

$$\lambda _k\lambda _1+\mathrm{}+\lambda _{k1}+\lambda _{k+1}+\mathrm{}+\lambda _n$$
(2)
where the eigenvalues of the density matrix $`\rho _k`$ of the $`k`$th qubit are $`\lambda _k`$ and $`1\lambda _k`$ with $`\lambda _k1/2`$. These inequalities completely characterise the possible sets of eigenvalues, and therefore the possible reduced one-qubit states, of a pure $`n`$-qubit state.

These results reveal some surprising aspects of pure quantum states. One concerns the comparison with the classical notion of a pure state in the sense of a probability distribution. The notion of a *pure state* applies to both quantum and classical systems, if we consider a state of a classical system to be a probability distribution for the values of variables which actually have precise values. Then a pure state of a classical system (defined to be an extreme point of the convex set of probability distributions) corresponds to perfect knowledge of the variables, so that all probabilities are 0 or 1. A pure state of a quantum system corresponds to maximum knowledge, but the characteristic feature of quantum mechanics is that even in a pure state there are variables for which perfect knowledge is not available; indeed, any possible probability distribution will occur for some variable. However, given any pure state there is always some physical variable for which the probabilities are all 0 or 1 (for example, the projection operator onto the state). This is the quantum version of the above characterisation of classical pure states.

This analogy between quantum and classical pure states disappears when we consider marginal states. Classically, a joint distribution of many variables is pure if and only if each one-variable marginal distribution is pure. We know that this is not true in quantum mechanics; the fact that a pure multipartite state may give mixed one-party states is the phenomenon of entanglement. Nevertheless, our results place limits on the one-party states; not every probability distribution is possible.

The most surprising aspect of this is that it is a statement about an overall property of the whole system, namely the purity of its state, which depends only on *local* measurements. We emphasize that this is only a negative statement: from the knowledge that the one-party reduced states satisfy the polygon inequalities one cannot normally deduce that the multipartite state must be pure (this is only possible if the one-party states are themselves pure); but the local information in a violation of the polynomial inequalities does give the overall information that the multipartite state cannot be pure.

To prove the assertion (2), we expand the pure $`n`$-qubit state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ in the Schmidt basis BrunCohen:3qubits ; CohenBrun:Schmidt ; localinv . Let $`|\varphi _0^{(k)}`$ and $`|\varphi _1^{(k)}`$ be the eigenstates of the reduced state $`\rho _k`$ with eigenvalues $`\lambda _k`$ and $`1\lambda _k`$ respectively; we will show that

$$\lambda _1\lambda _2+\mathrm{}+\lambda _n.$$
(3)
We assume $`\lambda _1>0`$ (if not, the inequality (3) is trivially satisfied). We note that $`|\varphi _0^{(1)}`$ and $`|\varphi _1^{(1)}`$ are the states of the first qubit occurring in the Schmidt decomposition of $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ when the system is divided into two parts, one containing the first qubit and the other containing the rest, so

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=A|\varphi _0^{(1)}|\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(1)}+B|\varphi _1^{(1)}|\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(1)}$$
(4)
where $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(1)}`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(1)}`$ are orthogonal normalised $`(n1)`$-qubit states, $`A`$ and $`B`$ are real and $`A^2=\lambda _1=1B^2`$. Since $`\lambda _1`$ is the smaller eigenvalue, $`0<AB`$. We write $`|i_1\mathrm{}i_n=|\varphi _{i_1}^{(1)}\mathrm{}|\varphi _{i_n}^{(n)}`$ and expand $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ in this basis:

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ $`=A{\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|0i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n`$
$`+B{\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|1i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n`$
with

$$\underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}|a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2=\underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}|b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2=1.$$
(5)
Then

$`\lambda _k`$ $`=A^2{\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n;i_k=0}{}}|a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2`$
$`+B^2{\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n;i_k=0}{}}|b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2`$
so that

$`\lambda _2+\mathrm{}+\lambda _n`$ $`=A^2{\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}N_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2`$
$`+B^2{\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}N_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2,`$
where

$$N_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}n1(i_2+i_3+\mathrm{}+i_n)$$
(6)
is the number of times “0” appears in $`(i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n)`$. Hence $`N_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}1`$ if $`(i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n)(1,1,\mathrm{},1)`$. This implies that

$`\lambda _2+\mathrm{}+\lambda _n`$ $``$ $`A^2\left({\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}|a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2\right)`$ (7)
$`+B^2\left({\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}|b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2\right)`$
$`=`$ $`A^2(1|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2)+B^2(1|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2)`$
$``$ $`A^2(2|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2),`$
since $`B^2A^2`$. Now by the orthogonality of $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(1)}`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(1)}`$ in (4),

$$\underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}=0,$$
(8)
so, using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality,

$`|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2`$ $``$ $`\left({\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}|a_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2\right)`$ (9)
$`\left({\displaystyle \underset{i_2,i_3,\mathrm{},i_n}{}}|b_{i_2i_3\mathrm{}i_n}|^2|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2\right)`$
$`=`$ $`(1|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2)(1|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2).`$
Therefore

$$|a_{11\mathrm{}1}|^2+|b_{11\mathrm{}1}|^21.$$
(10)
Hence from Eq. (7) we have

$$\lambda _2+\lambda _3+\mathrm{}+\lambda _nA^2=\lambda _1.$$
(11)
Clearly there are similar inequalities with each of the $`\lambda _k`$ on the right-hand side. We call these the *polygon inequalities*.

To show that these inequalities define exactly the set of possible one-qubit reduced states, we prove that given any real numbers $`\{\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _n\}`$ lying between 0 and $`1/2`$ and satisfying (2) we can find an $`n`$-qubit state for which $`\lambda _k`$ is the smaller eigenvalue of the reduced density matrix $`\rho _k`$. We will suppose that $`\lambda _1`$ is the largest of the numbers, so that

$$0\lambda _i\lambda _11/2,i=2,3,\mathrm{}n.$$
(12)
For $`n=3`$ let

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_3a|100+b|010+c|001+d|111,$$
(13)
where $`a`$, $`b`$, $`c`$ and $`d`$ are real and satisfy $`a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2=1`$. Then for each of the three qubits the eigenvectors of the one-qubit reduced state are $`|0`$ and $`|1`$. Let $`\lambda _i`$ be the eigenvalue corresponding to $`|0`$ for the $`i`$th qubit. Then

$`\lambda _1`$ $`=`$ $`b^2+c^2,`$ (14)
$`\lambda _2`$ $`=`$ $`c^2+a^2,`$ (15)
$`\lambda _3`$ $`=`$ $`a^2+b^2.`$ (16)
These can be solved as

$`a^2`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}\left(\lambda _2+\lambda _3\lambda _1\right),`$ (17)
$`b^2`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}\left(\lambda _3+\lambda _1\lambda _2\right),`$ (18)
$`c^2`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}\left(\lambda _1+\lambda _2\lambda _3\right).`$ (19)
Thus if the $`\lambda _i`$ satisfy the triangle inequalities there is a real solution $`(a,b,c)`$ of the equations, and if $`\lambda _i1/2`$ this solution satisfies

$$a^2+b^2+c^2=\frac{\lambda _1+\lambda _2+\lambda _3}{2}3/4,$$
(20)
so that $`a^2+b^2+c^21`$ and it is possible to find a normalised state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$. Hence, there is a state with arbitrary eigenvalues satisfying Eqs. (3) and (12) for $`n=3`$.

Now assume that this is true for any $`(n1)`$-qubit system. Suppose that $`\lambda _n`$ is the smallest of the $`\lambda _i`$, and define $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1\lambda _1\lambda _n`$. There are two cases to consider. If $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1\lambda _i`$ for $`2in1`$, then $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }_1,\lambda _2,\mathrm{},\lambda _{n1})`$ satisfies Eqs. (3) and (12) with $`n`$ replaced by $`n1`$ and $`\lambda _1`$ by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$. In the second case, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1<\lambda _m`$ for some $`m`$, say $`m=2`$; we can suppose that $`\lambda _2\lambda _i`$ for $`i=3,\mathrm{},n1`$. Then

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\lambda _3+\mathrm{}+\lambda _{n1}`$ $`=\lambda _1+(\lambda _3\lambda _n)+\lambda _4+\mathrm{}+\lambda _{n1}`$
$`\lambda _1\lambda _2.`$
Hence the set $`(\lambda _2,\mathrm{\Lambda }_1,\lambda _3,\mathrm{},\lambda _{n1})`$ satisfies Eqs. (3) and (12) with $`n`$ replaced by $`n1`$ and $`\lambda _1`$ and $`\lambda _2`$ replaced by $`\lambda _2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$, respectively. In either case there is a state for which $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$, $`\lambda _2`$, $`\mathrm{}`$, $`\lambda _{n1}`$ are the smaller eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices. Let this state be

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{n1}=|0|\varphi +|1|\psi ,$$
(21)
where $`|\varphi `$ and $`|\psi `$ are $`(n2)`$-qubit states satisfying $`\varphi |\varphi =\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$, $`\psi |\psi =1\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$ and $`\varphi |\psi =0`$, and $`\lambda _2`$, $`\lambda _3`$, $`\mathrm{}`$, $`\lambda _{n1}`$ are the smaller eigenvalues of the one-qubit reduced density matrices of $`|\varphi \varphi |+|\psi \psi |`$. Now consider the following $`n`$-qubit state:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_n=|0|\varphi |1+\mathrm{sin}\chi |0|\psi |0+\mathrm{cos}\chi |1|\psi |1.$$
(22)
The smaller eigenvalue $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i`$ of this state for the $`i`$th qubit with $`2in1`$ is again the smaller eigenvalue of the $`i`$th one-qubit reduced density matrix of $`|\varphi \varphi |+|\psi \psi |`$. Hence $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i=\lambda _i`$ for $`2in1`$. The $`n`$th and $`1`$st eigenvalues corresponding to the eigenvectors $`|0`$ are

$`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_n`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sin}^2\chi \psi |\psi ,`$ (23)
$`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_1`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi |\varphi +\mathrm{sin}^2\chi \psi |\psi =\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_n.`$ (24)
Since $`\psi |\psi 1/2`$, one can choose $`\chi `$ so that $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_n=\lambda _n.`$ Then (24) gives $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_1=\lambda _1`$.

We conclude by induction that a state with the required one-qubit eigenvalues exists for any $`n`$.

Of course, it does not follow that if an $`n`$-qubit state has one-qubit reduced states whose eigenvalues satisfy the polygon inequalities, then the $`n`$-qubit state must be pure. In general, a given set of one-qubit reduced states can be obtained from many different $`n`$-qubit states, most of which will be mixed: for example, the tensor product of the one-qubit states, which will be mixed if any of the one-qubit states are mixed. It is only when all the one-qubit states are pure that the $`n`$-qubit state from which they arise must be pure.

Purity of the $`n`$-qubit state places no restriction on the eigenstates of the one-qubit reduced states, since any pair of orthogonal eigenstates can be transformed to any other by local unitary operations. The complete set of one-qubit reduced states which can arise from a pure $`n`$-qubit state is therefore determined by the set of possible eigenvalues that we have described. The situation for the reduced states of larger subsets is likely to be more complicated. The example of two-qubit subsets of a system of four qubits shows that polygon inequalities (3) for any combination of eigenvalues are not sufficient, for these would allow all reduced states to be totally mixed (all eigenvalues equal to 1/4), which is not possible bobcarol . It would be interesting to know the exact set of marginal two-qubit probabilities for this system.

The situation for qudits (particles whose state spaces have dimension $`d`$) also appears to be more complicated. An argument similar to the above shows that the eigenvalues of the one-qudit reduced states must satisfy (3) with each $`\lambda _i`$ replaced by the sum of all but the largest eigenvalue of qudit $`i`$ (so the largest eigenvalues satisfy the same inequality as for qubits), but there appear to be further inequalities that must be satisfied. This is under investigation.