STEPWISE QUANTUM DECAY OF SELF-LOCALIZED SOLITONS

The two-phonon decay of self-localized solitons in a one-dimensional m onatomic anharmonic lattice caused by cubic anharmonicity is considere d. It is shown that the decay takes place with emission of phonon burs ts. The average rate of emission of phonons is of the order of the vib rational quantum per vibrational period. The characteristic relaxation time is determined by the quantum anharmonicity parameter; this time may vary from few (quantum lattices, large anharmonicity) to thousands (ordinary lattices, small anharmonicity) of vibrational periods.