A permutation related to the dynamics of a scalar parabolic PDE (Q1176503)

The authors study the initial-Neumann problem for the one-dimensional parabolic PDE \(u_ t=u_{xx}+f(x,u,u_ x)\) on the cylinder \((0,1)\times (0,\infty)\) with zero Neumann data. Under simple hypotheses on \(f\) (assumed in this paper), this problem has a global solution and a global attractor \(A_ f\subset H^ 1\) determined by the function \(f\) which generically consists of a finite number of hyperbolic equilibria along with orbits connecting them. There is also a manifold \(M_ f\) defined to be the set of all points of the form \((x,u(x;a),u_ x(x;a))\) for \(u\) defined (for each choice of the parameter \(a\) guaranteeing \(u\) to be defined on (0,1)) by \(u_{xx}+f(x,u,u_ x)=0\), \(u(0)=a\), \(u_ x(0)=0\). The authors show a natural connection between \(M_ f\) and \(A_ f\) and ask which manifolds \(M\) of the appropriate dimension are \(M_ f\) for some \(f\). They also study the set of permutations of the intersection of \(\gamma_ f\) (which is the projection on the phase plane of the intersection of \(M_ f\) with the plane \(x=1\)) and the axis \(u_ x=0\). This set of permutations yields important information on the dynamics of the initial-Neumann problem.