On the structure of the spectra of periodic travelling waves (Q1900599)

Given a periodic travelling wave solution of a nonlinear parabolic system, we study the spectrum of the operator \(L\) obtained by linearizing the system about the wave. On the space of bounded continuous functions, the spectrum of such operators consists only of continuous spectrum. The first part of the paper characterizes the spectrum of \(L\) as the union of the set of \(\gamma\)-eigenvalues, which are defined to be the values of the spectral parameter \(\lambda\) where the monodromy matrix of the associated first order system of periodic o.d.e.'s has an eigenvalue \(\gamma\) on the unit circle. Suitable notions of \(\gamma\)-multiplicity are then introduced, and it is shown that for each \(\gamma\), the \(\gamma\)-multiplicity is finite. Hence the spectrum is essentially the union of a 1-parameter family of operators with discrete spectrum. The second part of the paper introduces a topological invariant called the \(\gamma\)-eigenvalue index, which counts the number of \(\gamma\)- eigenvalues interior to a simple closed curve \(K\) in the spectral plane which is disjoint from the gamma-spectrum of \(L\). The index is the first Chern number of a certain complex bundle over the 2-sphere. As a simple application, it is shown that if this index is one for all gamma on the circle, then the spectrum of \(L\) in \(K\) is the continuous image of a circle.