Fluxons interactions in a Josephson junction with a phase-shift

We consider a long Josephson junction with a discontinuity point characterized by a gauge phase-shift. The system is described by a modified sine-Gordon equation. We study, in particular, the interactions between a fluxon and a fractional fluxon. A perturbation theory is developed in the small phase-shift limit to understand the characteristics of the interaction. Finally, numerical computations of the threshold bias current and the threshold velocity for a fluxon running over a fractional fluxon are presented.