Breather

For the component in an internal combustion engine, see Crankcase ventilation system. For the item of scuba apparatus, see rebreather. For other uses, see Breather (disambiguation).

In physics, a breather is a nonlinear wave in which energy concentrates in a localized and oscillatory fashion. This contradicts with the expectations derived from the corresponding linear system for infinitesimal amplitudes, which tends towards an even distribution of initially localized energy.

A discrete breather is a breather solution on a nonlinear lattice.

The term breather originates from the characteristic that most breathers are localized in space and oscillate (breathe) in time.[1] But also the opposite situation: oscillations in space and localized in time[clarification needed], is denoted as a breather.

This breather pseudospherical surface corresponds to a solution of a non-linear wave-equation.
Pseudospherical breather surface
  1. ^ M. J. Ablowitz; D. J. Kaup; A. C. Newell; H. Segur (1973). "Method for solving the sine-Gordon equation". Physical Review Letters. 30 (25): 1262–1264. Bibcode:1973PhRvL..30.1262A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.30.1262.