Radial solitons in armchair carbon nanotubes

Radial solitons are investigated in armchair carbon nanotubes using a generalized Lennard-Jones potential. The radial solitons are found in terms of moving kink defects whose velocity obeys a dispersion relation. Effects of lattice discreteness on the shape of kink defects are examined by estimating the Peierls stress. Results suggest that the typical size for an unpinned kink phase is of the order of a lattice spacing.