Year: 2000
Type: article
Abstract: Kink dynamics in spatially discrete nonlinear Klein-Gordon systems is considered. For special choices of the substrate potential, such systems support continuous translation orbits of static kinks with no (classical) Peierls-Nabarro barrier. It is shown that these kinks experience, nevertheless, a lattice-periodic confining potential, due to purely quantum effects analogous to the Casimir effect of quantum field theory. The resulting `quantum Peierls-Nabarro potential' may be calculated in the weak-coupling approximation by a simple and computationally cheap numerical algorithm, which is applied, for the purposes of illustration, to a certain two-parameter family of substrates.
Author: J M Speight
Institution: University of Leeds
Language: English
Topic: Nonlinear Waves and Solitons
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2022918933