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We report the observation of spontaneous localization of energy in two spatial dimensions in the context of nonlinear electrical lattices. Both stationary and moving self-localized modes were generated experimentally and theoretically in a family of two-dimensional square as well as honeycomb lattices composed of 6 x 6 elements. Specifically, we find regions in driver voltage and frequency where stationary discrete breathers, also known as intrinsic localized modes (ILMs), exist and are stable due to the interplay of damping and spatially homogeneous driving. By introducing additional capacitors into the unit cell, these lattices can controllably induce mobile discrete breathers. When more than one such ILMs are experimentally generated in the lattice, the interplay of nonlinearity, discreteness, and wave interactions generates a complex dynamics wherein the ILMs attempt to maintain a minimum distance between one another. Numerical simulations show good agreement with experimental results and confirm that these phenomena qualitatively carry over to larger lattice sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show experimentally and numerically that an intrinsic localized mode (ILM) can be stably produced (and experimentally observed) via subharmonic, spatially homogeneous driving in the context of a nonlinear electrical lattice. The precise nonlinear spatial response of the system has been seen to depend on the relative location in frequency between the driver frequency, &ohgr;d, and the bottom of the linear dispersion curve, &ohgr;0- If &ohgr;d/2 lies just below &ohgr;0, then a single ILM can be generated in a 32-node lattice, whereas, when &ohgr;d/2 lies within the dispersion band, a spatially extended waveform resembling a train of ILMs results. To our knowledge, and despite its apparently broad relevance, such an experimental observation of subharmonically driven ILMs has not been previously reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the existence of breathers and of energy thresholds for their formation in DNLS lattices with linear and nonlinear impurities. In the case of linear impurities, we present some new results concerning important differences between the attractive and repulsive impurity which is interplaying with a power nonlinearity. These differences concern the coexistence or the existence of staggered and unstaggered breather profile patterns. We also distinguish between the excitation threshold (the positive minimum of the power observed when the dimension of the lattice is greater or equal to some critical value) and explicit analytical lower bounds on the power (predicting the smallest value of the power a discrete breather one-parameter family), which are valid for any dimension. Extended numerical studies in one-, two- and three-dimensional lattices justify that the theoretical bounds can be considered as thresholds for the existence of the frequency parameterized families. The discussion reviews and extends the issue of the excitation threshold in lattices with nonlinear impurities while lower bounds, with respect to the kinetic energy, are also discussed for travelling waves in FPU periodic lattices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose analytical lower and upper estimates on the excitation threshold for breathers (in the form of spatially localized and time periodic solutions) in discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (DNLS) lattices with power nonlinearity. The estimation, depending explicitly on the lattice parameters, is derived by a combination of a comparison argument on appropriate lower bounds depending on the frequency of each solution with a simple and justified heuristic argument. The numerical studies verify that the analytical estimates can be of particular usefulness, as a simple analytical detection of the activation energy for breathers in DNLS lattices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the interaction of moving localized oscillations with a local inhomogeneity in a discrete nonlinear Hamiltonian system. We conjecture that resonance with a static nonlinear localized oscillation centered at the local inhomogeneity is a necessary condition for observing the trapping phenomenon. Analytic calculations and numerical simulations agree well with our hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]