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Multifrequency and edge breathers in the discrete sine-Gordon system via subharmonic driving: theory, computation and experiment

We consider a chain of torsionally-coupled, planar pendula shaken horizontally by an external sinusoidal driver. It has been known that in such a system, theoretically modeled by the discrete sine-Gordon equation, intrinsic localized modes, also known as discrete breathers, can exist. Recently, the existence of multifrequency breathers via subharmonic driving has been theoretically proposed and numerically illustrated by Xu {\em et al.} in Phys. Rev. E {\bf 90}, 042921 (2014). In this paper, we verify this prediction experimentally. Comparison of the experimental results to numerical simulations with realistic system parameters (including a Floquet stability analysis), and wherever possible to analytical results (e.g. for the subharmonic response of the single driven-damped pendulum), yields good agreement. Finally, we report on period-1 and multifrequency edge breathers which are localized at the open boundaries of the chain, for which we have again found good agreement between experiments and numerical computations