Landau-Zener Tunneling of Solitons

A simple mechanical analog describing Landau-Zener tunneling effect is proposed using two weakly coupled chains of nonlinear oscillators with gradually decreasing (first chain) and increasing (second chain) masses. The model allows to investigate nonlinear generalization of Landau-Zener tunneling effect considering soliton propagation and tunneling between the chains. It is shown that soliton tunneling characteristics become drastically dependent on its amplitude in nonlinear regime. The validity of the developed tunneling theory is justified via comparison with direct numerical simulations on oscillator ladder system.