In the third edition the presentation of new topics has been
deliberately kept simple for pedagogical purposes. Chapter 1 was
completed by references to the tidal bore and magnetic envelope
solitons. Two new sections devoted to magnetic envelope solitons and
signal processing with solitons have been added to Chap. 4. Short
comments on models describing blood-pressure pulse propagation in terms
of solitons were added to chapter 5. A description of a new mechanical
transmission line with two equilibrium states has been included in Chap.
6. Such an analog device is useful to illustrate the properties of
kink-solitons and to observe solitary waves with a compact shape, called
compactons. New references conceming recent advances in experimental
techniques and lattice effects were added to Chap. 7. In Chap. 8 a short
introduction to spatial optical solitons in continuous and discrete
systems was included. Chapter 9 was completed by new sections devoted to
nonlinear lattice models and energy localization. The concepts of
self-trapped states and intrinsic localized modes or discrete breathers
are dicussed. Different analog chains which make it possible to observe
the characteristic features of discrete breathers, are described.
Contrary to previous chapters where we have considered reversible or
conservative systems where solitons can exist owing to the dynamical
balance between linear dispersion and nonlinearity, Chapter 11 which is
a new chapter, is devoted to irreversible systems where nonlinearity can
balance the effects of dissipation leading to "diffusing solitary waves"
or "diffusive solitons".
