The largest Lyapunov exponent as a tool for detecting relative changes in the particle positions

Dynamics of the dissipatively driven Frenkel-Kontorova model with asymmetric deformable substrate potential is examined by analyzing response function, the largest Lyapunov exponent and Poincar\'{e} sections for two neighboring particles. The obtained results show that the largest Lyapunov exponent, besides being used for investigating integral quantities, can be used for detecting microchanges in chain configuration. Slight changes in relative positions of the particles are registered through jumps of the largest Lyapunov exponent in the pinning regime. The occurrence of such jumps is highly dependent on type of commensurate structure and deformation of substrate potential. The obtained results also show that the minimal force required to initiate collective motion of the chain is not dependent on the number of Lyapunov exponent jumps in the pinning regime.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure