Modulational instability and discrete breathers in a nonlinear helicoidal lattice model

We investigate the problem on the discrete modulation instability of plane waves and discrete breather modes in a nonlinear helicoidal lattice model, which is described by a discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation with the first-, second-, and third-neighbor coupling. By means of the linear stability analysis, we present an analytical expression of the instability growth rate and identify the regions of modulational instability of plane waves. It is shown that the introduction of the third-neighbor coupling will affect the shape of the areas of modulational instability significantly. Based on the results obtained by the modulational instability analysis, we predict the existence conditions for the stationary breather modes. Otherwise, by making use of the semidiscrete multiple-scale method, we obtain analytical solutions of discrete breather modes and analyze their properties for different types of nonlinearities. Our results show that the discrete breathers obtained are stable for a long time only when the system exhibits the repulsive nonlinearity. In addition, it is found that the existence of the stable bright discrete breather closely relates to the presence of the third-neighbor coupling. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.