Modulational instability for nonlinear Schrodinger equations with a periodic potential

Abstract

We study the stability properties of periodic solutions to the Nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation with a periodic potential. We exploit the symmetries of the problem, in particular the Hamiltonian structure and the $\U(1)$ symmetry. We develop a simple sufficient criterion that guarantees the existence of a modulational instability spectrum along the imaginary axis. In the case of small amplitude solutions that bifurcate from the band edges of the linear problem this criterion becomes especially simple. We find that the small amplitude solutions corresponding to the band edges alternate stability, with the first band edge being modulationally unstable in the focusing case, the second band edge being modulationally unstable in the defocusing case, and so on. This small amplitude result has a nice physical interpretation in terms of the effective mass of a particle in the periodic potential. We also consider, in somewhat less detail, some sideband instabilities in the small amplitude limit. We find that, depending on the Krein signature of the collision, these can be of one of two types. Finally we illustrate this with some exact calculations in the case where $V(x)$ is an elliptic function, where all of the relevant calculations can be done explicitly.