Mechanism of Kuznetsov-Ma breathers

We discuss how to understand the dynamical process of Kuznetsov-Ma breather, based on some basic physical mechanisms. It is shown that the dynamical process of Kuznetsov-Ma breather involves at least two distinctive mechanisms: modulational instability and the interference effects between a bright soliton and a plane-wave background. Our analysis indicates that modulational instability plays dominant roles in the mechanism of Kuznetsov-Ma breather admitting weak perturbations, and the interference effect plays a dominant role for the Kuznetsov-Ma breather admitting strong perturbations. For intermediate cases, the two mechanisms are both greatly involved. These characters provide a possible way to understand the evolution of strong perturbations on a plane-wave background.