This book presents an overview of the most recent advances in nonlinear science. It provides a unified view of nonlinear properties in many different systems and highlights many new developments.

While volume 1 concentrates on mathematical theory and computational techniques and challenges, which are essential for the study of nonlinear science, this second volume deals with nonlinear excitations in several fields. These excitations can be localized and transport energy and matter in the form of breathers, solitons, kinks or quodons with very different characteristics, which are discussed in the book. They can also transport electric charge, in which case they are known as polarobreathers or solectrons. Nonlinear excitations can influence function and structure in biology, as for example, protein folding. In crystals and other condensed matter, they can modify transport properties, reaction kinetics and interact with defects. There are also engineering applications in electric lattices, Josephson junction arrays, waveguide arrays, photonic crystals and optical fibers. Nonlinear excitations are inherent to Bose-Einstein Condensates, constituting an excellent benchmark for testing their properties and providing a pathway for future discoveries in fundamental physics.

Autorentext

Juan F. R. Archilla: Prof. Juan F.R. Archilla obtained his PhD in Physics in 1992 in the Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics of the University of Sevilla, Spain. Presently he is professor in the Department of Applied Physics I of the University of Sevilla, Spain. His lectures in Mechanics and Electromagnetism take place at the Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering in the degrees of Health Engineering and Computer Engineering. His research has been in different aspects of Nonlinear Science, some more theoretical as symmetry and bifurcation theory with application to reaction diffusion systems and some more applied as localized nonlinear waves, reaction rate theory, defects in semiconductors and breathers and kinks in crystals and biological systems as DNA and proteins; or neutron spectroscopy of nonlinear vibrations. Lately he has been involved in experiments to detect nonlinear excitations. He is the head of the Research Group of Nonlinear Physics of the University of Sevilla and member of the European Physical Association. He is a frequent referee in international journals, including Springer journals. Prof. Archilla has been guest researcher in several universities as Freie Univerität in Berlin; Cambridge and Heriot-Watt Universities in the UK; Denmark Technical University in Lyngby, Denmark; LADIR (CNRS) in Paris, France; Tartu University in Estonia; and Osaka University in Japan. He participated in experimental work in the ISIS spallation neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. He has taken part in the organization of several international conferences, the most recent ones in Altea (Spain, 2013, as chairman); Ufa (Russia, 2015) and Sevilla (Spain, 2016) and the next one to be held in Kyoto (Japan, 2018). Prof. Archilla has written about 60 scientific publications in international journals and books. He has been the main editor of a recent volume in Springer Series in Materials Science: Quodons in Mica, Nonlinear Localized Travelling Excitations in Crystals (2015). Some relevant articles in journals are: Nonlinear charge transport mechanism in periodic and disordered DNA, Physica D (2003), where DNA was proposed as a biological wire; Demonstration of the stability or instability of multibreathers at low coupling, Physica D (2003), with a new theoretical approach to multibreather stability; Discrete breathers for understanding reconstructive mineral processes at low temperature, Physica D (2006) which opened the field of the influence of breathers in reaction kinetics; Long range annealing of defects in germanium by low energy plasma ions, Physica D (2015) with experimental work on the annealing effect of nonlinear excitations; On the charge of quodons, Letters on Materials (2016) on the different types and charge of nonlinear excitations triggered by 40K decay in layered silicates. In preparations is an article describing experimental evidence of charge transport by nonlinear excitations. Faustino Palmero : Prof. Faustino Palmero obtained his PhD in Physics in 1997 in the Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics of the University of Sevilla, Spain. Presently he is the head of the Department of Applied Physics I of the University of Sevilla Spain. His lectures in Mechanics and Electromagnetism take place at the Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering in the degrees of Health Engineering and Computer Engineering. His research has been in different aspects of Nonlinear Science, some more theoretical as symmetry and bifurcation theory with application to reaction diffusion systems or control of chaos in nonlinear oscillators and some more applied as localized nonlinear waves. He is an active member of the Group of Nonlinear Physics of the University of Sevilla. He is a frequent referee for international journals. Prof. Palmero has been guest researcher in several universities as Heriot-Watt University in the UK and San Diego State University and Dickinson College in USA. He has taken part in the organization of several international conferences, the most recent one in Sevilla as chairman (Spain, 2016). Prof. Palmero is author of many scientific publications in international journals and books. The most recent ones (2016) are: K. L. Joiner, F. Palmero, R. Carretero-González. Optoelectronic Chaos in a Simple Light Activated Feedback Circuit. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos Vol. 26, No. 05, 1650080 (2016); R. Chacón, F. Palmero, and J. Cuevas-Maraver. Impulse-induced localized control of chaos in starlike networks. Phys. Rev. E 93, 062210 (2016); F. Palmero, J. Han, L.Q. English, T.J. Alexander, P.G. Kevrekidis. Multifrequency and edge breathers in the discrete sine-Gordon system via subharmonic driving: Theory, computation and experiment. Physics Letters A. Volume 380, Issue 3, 28: 402-407 (2016). M. Carmen Lemos : Prof. M. Carmen Lemos obtained her PhD in Physics in 1992 in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics of the University of Sevilla, Spain. Presently, she is a professor in that department and her lectures in Physics take place at the Faculty of Biology in the degree of Biology, as well as at the Faculty of Physics in the degrees of Physics, Physics and Mathematics, and Physics and Material Engineering. Prof. Lemos is the head of the Research Group on Non-Linear Phenomena of the University of Sevilla. Her research is framed within the theory of complex systems and tackles different problems of Nonlinear Science as physical chemistry of surfaces (adsorption phenomena and heterogeneous catalysis) and modeling of genetic and transcriptional networks associated with developmental biology. She has participated as a referee in international journals, including Springer journals as Catalysis Letters. She has taken part in the organization of the international conference on nonlinear mathematics and physics held in Sevilla (Spain, 2016). Prof. Lemos is the author of many scientific publications in international journals and books. Some publications of the last years are: M.C. Lemos, F.E. Gálvez, and A. Córdoba, Study and control of the N2O + H2 reaction on Ir(110) by Monte Carlo simulations, Cybernetics and Physics, 1: 169 (2012); D. Aguilar-Hidalgo, M.C. Lemos, and A. Córdoba, Monte Carlo simulation for the formation of subsurface oxygen on Pt(100) and its elimination by CO oxidation, Surface Science, 607:203 (2013); D. Aguilar-Hidalgo, A. Córdoba, and M.C Lemos, Complex networks evolutionary dynamics using genetic algorithms, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 22: 1250156 (2012); D. Aguilar-Hidalgo, M.A. Domínguez-Cejudo, G. Amore, A. Brockmann, M.C. Lem…