Driven kinks in discrete chains: Phonon damping - art. no. 046611

Phonon radiation is shown numerically to damp the motion of a relativistica lly driven phi (4) soliton, even in the extremely weak discreteness limit. At higher discreteness, the soliton mobility is characterized by a disconti nuous dependence on the driving force; jumps are related to phonon and brea ther-radiation thresholds. Moreover, the speed of a frictionless soliton ca nnot be lowered below a certain threshold value, or else it might get trapp ed between two adjacent chain sites.