  We explore the energy transfer dynamics in an array of two chains of
identical rigid interacting dipoles. A crossover between two different ground
state (GS) equilibrium configurations is observed with varying distance between
the two chains of the array. Linearizing around the GS configurations, we
verify that interactions up to third nearest neighbors should be accounted for
accurately describe the resulting dynamics. Starting with one of the GS, we
excite the system by supplying it with an excess energy DK located initially on
one of the dipoles. We study the time evolution of the array for different
values of the system parameters b and DK. Our focus is hereby on two features
of the energy propagation: the redistribution of the excess energy DK among the
two chains and the energy localization along each chain. For typical parameter
values, the array of dipoles reaches both the equipartition between the chains
and the thermal equilibrium from the early stages of the time evolution.
Nevertheless, there is a region in parameter space (b,DK) where even up to the
long computation time of this study, the array does neither reach energy
equipartition nor thermalization between chains. This fact is due to the
existence of persistent chaotic breathers.
