Solitary wave interactions in lattice systems with pure higher-order nonlinearity

In this paper, we investigate in detail the interactions of solitary waves in lattice systems with interaction potential V(q)=qⁿ/n, where n is 4,6,8…, through their all possible collision types, and establish a quantitative connection between the scattering property of solitary waves and the chaotic dynamics of the systems. Kink and antikink are excited in such lattice systems and the variation of their scattering effect with n is concerned. After a kink-antikink collision, the dominant interaction in the systems, if n is small, is that solitary waves pass through each other and the scattering effect increases with n; if n is large, solitary waves reflect back sometimes due to the influence of phase and this leads to a decrease of the scattering effect with n. The largest Lyapunov exponents of systems at fixed energy density first increase and then decrease with n, which is consistent with a variation of the scattering effect. The application of the special scattering behaviors between kink and antikink in information propagation is also discussed.