Effects of gravity and nonlinearity on the waves in the granular chain

The solitary signal observed in a horizontal granular chain changes its speed and form due to gravity in a vertical chain. We find that all the propagating signals in a vertical chain follow power laws in depth for propagating speed, grain velocity, amplitude, and width. This stems from the power-law type changing of elastic properties in a medium under gravity. The propagation may be separated into two types according to the behavior of the power-law exponents, depending on the strength of the nonlinearity. We show that the power-law exponents are constants in the strength of the impulse in the weakly nonlinear regime, while they depend on the strength of the impulse in the strongly nonlinear regime. We derive power-law exponents for the weakly nonlinear regime analytically and try to understand the behaviors of the strongly nonlinear regime through analytical treatment.