On the Eckhaus instability for spatially periodic patterns (Q1074197)

In this paper the authors treat dynamical systems with spatially periodic solutions in one direction whereas the transverse dimensions are sufficiently small so that variations of all quantities in those directions are fixed by the geometry (no transverse fluctuations) and make stability analysis for the case that the range of stable wave vectors is near the threshold for appearance of periodic patterns limited by the long-wavelength Eckhaus instability where saddle-point solutions characterizing the wavelength changing process inside the stable range merge with the periodic solutions. They first analyze this bifurcation near the threshold using the amplitude expansion in lowest order. Then a nonlinear equation for the evolution of slow modulations of the periodic pattern far from threshold but near the Eckhaus instability is derived and used to analyze the universal properties of the Eckhaus bifurcation. More detailed information concerning the spatial symmetry of saddle-point solutions is obtained by numerical integration of simple model systems.