Effects of topological solitons on autocorrelation functions for chains of coupled torsional oscillators

Abstract

Brownian dynamics computer simulations were performed on chains of coupled torsional oscillators. The purpose was to observe the changes in autocorrelation functions, related to typical experimental measurements, caused by the introduction of topological solitons or kinks into the system. We considered three model systems: a chain of coupled torsional oscillators, a chain of coupled torsional oscillators with additional onefold rotational potentials acting on each oscillator, and a chain of coupled torsional oscillators with additional threefold rotational potentials. These models are of interest because of their application to torsional motions in polymeric systems, and, in particular, the system with onefold rotational potentials has been studied extensively as the sine–Gordon chain. We present simulation results for three autocorrelation functions of these three systems both with and without topological solitons.