Landau-Zener Tunneling of Solitons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mechanical analog model to study nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling of solitons, revealing how soliton tunneling depends on amplitude and validating the theory through numerical simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel nonlinear model using coupled oscillator chains to analyze soliton tunneling, extending Landau-Zener theory beyond linear regimes.

Findings

Soliton tunneling characteristics are highly amplitude-dependent in nonlinear regimes.

The proposed model accurately predicts tunneling behavior, confirmed by numerical simulations.

Nonlinear effects significantly alter tunneling probabilities compared to linear cases.

Abstract

A simple mechanical analog describing Landau-Zener tunneling effect is proposed using two weakly coupled chains of nonlinear oscillators with gradually decreasing (first chain) and increasing (second chain) masses. The model allows to investigate nonlinear generalization of Landau-Zener tunneling effect considering soliton propagation and tunneling between the chains. It is shown that soliton tunneling characteristics become drastically dependent on its amplitude in nonlinear regime. The validity of the developed tunneling theory is justified via comparison with direct numerical simulations on oscillator ladder system.