The effective equation method

In this chapter we present a general method of constructing the effective equation which describes the behaviour of small-amplitude solutions for a nonlinear PDE in finite volume, provided that the linear part of the equation is a hamiltonian system with a pure imaginary discrete spectrum. The effective equation is obtained by retaining only the resonant terms of the nonlinearity (which may be hamiltonian, or may be not); the assertion that it describes the limiting behaviour of small-amplitude solutions is a rigorous mathematical theorem. In particular, the method applies to the three-- and four--wave systems. We demonstrate that different possible types of energy transport are covered by this method, depending on whether the set of resonances splits into finite clusters (this happens, e.g. in case of the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima equation), or is connected (this happens, e.g. in the case of the NLS equation if the space-dimension is at least two). For equations of the first type the energy transition to high frequencies does not hold, while for equations of the second type it may take place. In the case of the NLS equation we use next some heuristic approximation from the arsenal of wave turbulence to show that under the iterated limit "the volume goes to infinity", taken after the limit "the amplitude of oscillations goes to zero", the energy spectrum of solutions for the effective equation is described by a Zakharov-type kinetic equation. Evoking the Zakharov ansatz we show that stationary in time and homogeneous in space solutions for the latter equation have a power law form. Our method applies to various weakly nonlinear wave systems, appearing in plasma, meteorology and oceanology

Mean flow and spiral defect chaos in Rayleigh-Benard convection

We describe a numerical procedure to construct a modified velocity field that does not have any mean flow. Using this procedure, we present two results. Firstly, we show that, in the absence of mean flow, spiral defect chaos collapses to a stationary pattern comprising textures of stripes with angular bends. The quenched patterns are characterized by mean wavenumbers that approach those uniquely selected by focus-type singularities, which, in the absence of mean flow, lie at the zig-zag instability boundary. The quenched patterns also have larger correlation lengths and are comprised of rolls with less curvature. Secondly, we describe how mean flow can contribute to the commonly observed phenomenon of rolls terminating perpendicularly into lateral walls. We show that, in the absence of mean flow, rolls begin to terminate into lateral walls at an oblique angle. This obliqueness increases with Rayleigh number.Comment: 14 pages, 19 figure

Pattern Formation of Ion Channels with State Dependent Electrophoretic Charges and Diffusion Constants in Fluid Membranes

A model of mobile, charged ion channels in a fluid membrane is studied. The channels may switch between an open and a closed state according to a simple two-state kinetics with constant rates. The effective electrophoretic charge and the diffusion constant of the channels may be different in the closed and in the open state. The system is modeled by densities of channel species, obeying simple equations of electro-diffusion. The lateral transmembrane voltage profile is determined from a cable-type equation. Bifurcations from the homogeneous, stationary state appear as hard-mode, soft-mode or hard-mode oscillatory transitions within physiologically reasonable ranges of model parameters. We study the dynamics beyond linear stability analysis and derive non-linear evolution equations near the transitions to stationary patterns.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, will be submitted to Phys. Rev.

Statistics and Characteristics of Spatio-Temporally Rare Intense Events in Complex Ginzburg-Landau Models

We study the statistics and characteristics of rare intense events in two types of two dimensional Complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equation based models. Our numerical simulations show finite amplitude collapse-like solutions which approach the infinite amplitude solutions of the nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger (NLS) equation in an appropriate parameter regime. We also determine the probability distribution function (PDF) of the amplitude of the CGL solutions, which is found to be approximately described by a stretched exponential distribution, $P(|A|) \approx e^{-|A|^\eta}$, where $\eta < 1$. This non-Gaussian PDF is explained by the nonlinear characteristics of individual bursts combined with the statistics of bursts. Our results suggest a general picture in which an incoherent background of weakly interacting waves, occasionally, `by chance', initiates intense, coherent, self-reinforcing, highly nonlinear events.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Cross-Newell equations for hexagons and triangles

The Cross-Newell equations for hexagons and triangles are derived for general real gradient systems, and are found to be in flux-divergence form. Specific examples of complex governing equations that give rise to hexagons and triangles and which have Lyapunov functionals are also considered, and explicit forms of the Cross-Newell equations are found in these cases. The general nongradient case is also discussed; in contrast with the gradient case, the equations are not flux-divergent. In all cases, the phase stability boundaries and modes of instability for general distorted hexagons and triangles can be recovered from the Cross-Newell equations.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figur

Amplitude equations near pattern forming instabilities for strongly driven ferromagnets

A transversally driven isotropic ferromagnet being under the influence of a static external and an uniaxial internal anisotropy field is studied. We consider the dissipative Landau-Lifshitz equation as the fundamental equation of motion and treat it in $1+1$~dimensions. The stability of the spatially homogeneous magnetizations against inhomogeneous perturbations is analyzed. Subsequently the dynamics above threshold is described via amplitude equations and the dependence of their coefficients on the physical parameters of the system is determined explicitly. We find soft- and hard-mode instabilities, transitions between sub- and supercritical behaviour, various bifurcations of higher codimension, and present a series of explicit bifurcation diagrams. The analysis of the codimension-2 point where the soft- and hard-mode instabilities coincide leads to a system of two coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations.Comment: LATeX, 25 pages, submitted to Z.Phys.B figures available via [email protected] in /pub/publications/frank/zpb_95 (postscript, plain or gziped

Spatiotemporally localized solitons in resonantly absorbing Bragg reflectors

We predict the existence of spatiotemporal solitons (``light bullets'') in two-dimensional self-induced transparency media embedded in a Bragg grating. The "bullets" are found in an approximate analytical form, their stability being confirmed by direct simulations. These findings suggest new possibilities for signal transmission control and self-trapping of light.Comment: RevTex, 3 pages, 2 figures, to be published in PR

Parametrically Excited Surface Waves: Two-Frequency Forcing, Normal Form Symmetries, and Pattern Selection

Motivated by experimental observations of exotic standing wave patterns in the two-frequency Faraday experiment, we investigate the role of normal form symmetries in the pattern selection problem. With forcing frequency components in ratio m/n, where m and n are co-prime integers, there is the possibility that both harmonic and subharmonic waves may lose stability simultaneously, each with a different wavenumber. We focus on this situation and compare the case where the harmonic waves have a longer wavelength than the subharmonic waves with the case where the harmonic waves have a shorter wavelength. We show that in the former case a normal form transformation can be used to remove all quadratic terms from the amplitude equations governing the relevant resonant triad interactions. Thus the role of resonant triads in the pattern selection problem is greatly diminished in this situation. We verify our general results within the example of one-dimensional surface wave solutions of the Zhang-Vinals model of the two-frequency Faraday problem. In one-dimension, a 1:2 spatial resonance takes the place of a resonant triad in our investigation. We find that when the bifurcating modes are in this spatial resonance, it dramatically effects the bifurcation to subharmonic waves in the case of forcing frequencies are in ratio 1/2; this is consistent with the results of Zhang and Vinals. In sharp contrast, we find that when the forcing frequencies are in ratio 2/3, the bifurcation to (sub)harmonic waves is insensitive to the presence of another spatially-resonant bifurcating mode.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, late

Frozen spatial chaos induced by boundaries

We show that rather simple but non-trivial boundary conditions could induce the appearance of spatial chaos (that is stationary, stable, but spatially disordered configurations) in extended dynamical systems with very simple dynamics. We exemplify the phenomenon with a nonlinear reaction-diffusion equation in a two-dimensional undulated domain. Concepts from the theory of dynamical systems, and a transverse-single-mode approximation are used to describe the spatially chaotic structures.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, submitted for publication; for related work visit http://www.imedea.uib.es/~victo

Phase Dynamics of Nearly Stationary Patterns in Activator-Inhibitor Systems

The slow dynamics of nearly stationary patterns in a FitzHugh-Nagumo model are studied using a phase dynamics approach. A Cross-Newell phase equation describing slow and weak modulations of periodic stationary solutions is derived. The derivation applies to the bistable, excitable, and the Turing unstable regimes. In the bistable case stability thresholds are obtained for the Eckhaus and the zigzag instabilities and for the transition to traveling waves. Neutral stability curves demonstrate the destabilization of stationary planar patterns at low wavenumbers to zigzag and traveling modes. Numerical solutions of the model system support the theoretical findings