A new Evans function for quasi-periodic solutions of the linearised sine-Gordon equation

Abstract: We construct a new Evans function for quasi-periodic solutions to the linearisation of the sine-Gordon equation about a periodic travelling wave. This Evans function is written in terms of fundamental solutions to a Hill's equation. Applying Evans-Krein function theory to our Evans function, we provide a new method for computing the Krein signatures of simple characteristic values of the linearised sine-Gordon equation. By varying the Floquet exponent parametrising the quasi-periodic solutions, we compute the linearised spectra of periodic travelling wave solutions of the sine-Gordon equation and and track dynamical Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcations via the Krein signature. Finally, we show that our new Evans function can be readily applied to the general case of the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation with a non-periodic potential.