Boundary driven waveguide arrays: Supratransmission and saddle-node bifurcation

In this paper, we consider a semi-infinite discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation driven at one edge by a driving force. The equation models the dynamics of coupled waveguide arrays. When the frequency of the forcing is in the allowed band of the system, there will be a linear transmission of energy through the lattice. Yet, if the frequency is in the upper forbidden band, then there is a critical driving amplitude for a nonlinear tunneling, which is called supratransmission, of energy to occur. Here, we discuss mathematically the mechanism and the source of the supratransmission. By analyzing the existence and the stability of the rapidly decaying static discrete solitons of the system, we show rigorously that two of the static solitons emerge and disappear in a saddle-node bifurcation at a critical driving amplitude. One of the emerging solitons is always stable in its existence region and the other is always unstable. We argue that the critical amplitude for supratransmission is then the same as the critical driving amplitude of the saddle-node bifurcation. We consider as well the case of the forcing frequency in the lower forbidden band. It is discussed briefly that there is no supratransmission because in this case there is only one rapidly decaying static soliton that exists and is stable for any driving amplitude.