Sideband instabilities and defects of quasipatterns (Q5944259)

The paper develops detailed analysis of instabilities of two-dimensional patterns, which, in the general case, are quasi-periodic (but not periodic) in two spatial directions, and are obtained as stationary solutions of dynamical models describing weakly nonlinear isotropic media with a primary instability of a trivial state in it against perturbations with finite wavenumbers. Quasiperiodic patterns were observed experimentally in Faraday waves driven by time-periodic vertical shaking of a cell filled with a fluid, and also in some optical cavities driven by laser radiation. Stability of quasiperiodic patterns defined by 8-, 10-, and 12-fold local symmetries are analyzed in detail. The main subject of the work is the stability of the patterns against long-wave modulations. For this purpose, a system of coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations with real coefficients is used as a phenomenological model. It is demonstrated that the long-wave instability is determined by a combination of ``phonon'' modes, which are generated by the spatial homogeneity of the underlying dynamical model, and specific ``phason'' modes, which are related to deformations of the quasiperiodic pattern proper (for instance, in the case of the pattern with the 8-fold symmetry, which may be regarded as a superposition of two square lattices oriented under the angle of \(\pi/4\) relative to each other, a phason accounts for a shift of one square lattice relative to the other). As a result, stability regions are identified in the space of the stationary quasiperiodic solutions with (slightly) different spatial scales. Analysis of fundamental local defects in the quasiperiodic patterns of different types is also developed. For instance, two different types of defects are found in the quasiperiodic lattice with the 10-fold local symmetry.