Breather arrest in a chain of damped oscillators with Hertzian contact

Breather propagation in a damped oscillatory chain with Hertzian nearest-neighbour coupling is investigated. The breather exhibits an unusual two-stage pattern. first stage characterized by power-law decay of the amplitude. This extends over finite number sites. Drastic drop amplitude towards end this fragment referred to as arrest. At second stage, very small amplitudes hyper-exponential decay. Numeric results are rationalized considering simplified model two linear oscillators coupled contact forces. Initial excitation one these beating cycles system. reliably predicts main features More general potentials and effect pre-compression on also discussed.