Characteristics of chaos evolution in one-dimensional disordered nonlinear lattices

Abstract: We numerically investigate the characteristics of chaos evolution during wave packet spreading in two typical one-dimensional nonlinear disordered lattices: the Klein-Gordon system and the discrete nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation model. Completing previous investigations \cite{SGF13} we verify that chaotic dynamics is slowing down both for the so-called weak' andstrong chaos' dynamical regimes encountered in these systems, without showing any signs of a crossover to regular dynamics. The value of the finite-time maximum Lyapunov exponent $\Lambda$ decays in time $t$ as $\Lambda \propto t^{\alpha_{\Lambda}}$, with $\alpha_{\Lambda}$ being different from the $\alpha_{\Lambda}=-1$ value observed in cases of regular motion. In particular, $\alpha_{\Lambda}\approx -0.25$ (weak chaos) and $\alpha_{\Lambda}\approx -0.3$ (strong chaos) for both models, indicating the dynamical differences of the two regimes and the generality of the underlying chaotic mechanisms. The spatiotemporal evolution of the deviation vector associated with $\Lambda$ reveals the meandering of chaotic seeds inside the wave packet, which is needed for obtaining the chaotization of the lattice's excited part.