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A periodically inhomogeneous Schrodinger equation is considered. The inhomogeneity is reflected through a non-uniform coefficient of the linear and non-linear term in the equation. Due to the periodic inhomogeneity of the linear term, the system may admit spectral bands. When the oscillation frequency of a localized solution resides in one of the finite band gaps, the solution is a gap soliton, characterized by the presence of infinitely many zeros in the spatial profile of the soliton. Recently, how to construct such gap solitons through a composite phase portrait is shown. By exploiting the phase-space method and combining it with the application of a topological argument, it is shown that the instability of a gap soliton can be described by the phase portrait of the solution. Surface gap solitons at the interface between a periodic inhomogeneous and a homogeneous medium are also discussed. Numerical calculations are presented accompanying the analytical results., Comment: Comments and suggestions are welcome

We give a geometric proof of spectral stability of travelling kink wave solutions to the sine-Gordon equation. For a travelling kink wave solution of speed $c \neq \pm 1$, the wave is spectrally stable. The proof uses the Maslov index as a means for determining the lack of real eigenvalues. Ricatti equations and further geometric considerations are also used in establishing stability.

A nonlinear Schrodinger equation arising from light propagation down an inhomogeneous medium is considered. The inhomogeneity is reflected through a non-uniform coefficient of the non-linear term in the equation. In particular, a combination of self-focusing and self-defocusing nonlinearity, with the self-defocusing region localized in a finite interval, is investigated. Using numerical computations, the extension of linear eigenmodes of the corresponding linearized system into nonlinear states is established, particularly nonlinear continuations of the fundamental state and the first excited state. The (in)stability of the states is also numerically calculated, from which it is obtained that symmetric nonlinear solutions become unstable beyond a critical threshold norm. Instability of the symmetric states is then investigated analytically through the application of a topological argument. Determination of instability of positive symmetric states is reduced to simple geometric properties of the composite phase plane orbit of the standing wave. Further the topological argument is applied to higher excited states and instability is again reduced to straightforward geometric calculations. For a relatively high norm, it is observed that asymmetric states bifurcate from the symmetric ones. The stability and instability of asymmetric states is also considered., Comment: Suggestions and comments are welcome

We derive a model for the propagation of short pulses in nonlinear media. The model is a higher order regularization of the short pulse equation (SPE). The regularization term arises as the next term in the expansion of the susceptibility in derivation of the SPE. Without the regularization term there do not exist traveling pulses in the class of piecewise smooth functions with one discontinuity. However, when the regularization term is added we show, for a particular parameter regime, that the equation supports smooth traveling waves which have structure similar to solitary waves of the modified KdV equation. The existence of such traveling pulses is proved via the Fenichel theory for singularly perturbed systems and a Melnikov type transversality calculation. Corresponding statements for the Ostrovsky equations are also included.

In this paper, we study the competition of linear and nonlinear lattices and its effects on the stability and dynamics of bright solitary waves. We consider both lattices in a perturbative framework, whereby the technique of Hamiltonian perturbation theory can be used to obtain information about the existence of solutions, and the same approach, as well as eigenvalue count considerations, can be used to obtained detailed conditions about their linear stability. We find that the analytical results are in very good agreement with our numerical findings and can also be used to predict features of the dynamical evolution of such solutions., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

We consider the evolution of ultra-short optical pulses in linear and nonlinear media. For the linear case, we first show that the initial-boundary value problem for Maxwell's equations in which a pulse is injected into a quiescent medium at the left endpoint can be approximated by a linear wave equation which can then be further reduced to the linear short-pulse equation. A rigorous proof is given that the solution of the short pulse equation stays close to the solutions of the original wave equation over the time scales expected from the multiple scales derivation of the short pulse equation. For the nonlinear case we compare the predictions of the traditional nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (NLSE) approximation which those of the short pulse equation (SPE). We show that both equations can be derived from Maxwell's equations using the renormalization group method, thus bringing out the contrasting scales. The numerical comparison of both equations to Maxwell's equations shows clearly that as the pulse length shortens, the NLSE approximation becomes steadily less accurate while the short pulse equation provides a better and better approximation.

A spectral mapping theorem is proved that resolves a key problem in applying invariant manifold theorems to nonlinear Schr\" odinger type equations. The theorem is applied to the operator that arises as the linearization of the equation around a standing wave solution. We cast the problem in the context of space-dependent nonlinearities that arise in optical waveguide problems. The result is, however, more generally applicable including to equations in higher dimensions and even systems. The consequence is that stable, unstable, and center manifolds exist in the neighborhood of a (stable or unstable) standing wave, such as a waveguide mode, under simple and commonly verifiable spectral conditions., Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages