A striking correspondence between the dynamics generated by the vector fields and by the scalar parabolic equations (Q643858)

This paper reviews a body of recent work on the global dynamics generated by nonlinear parabolic equations which shows that these are much tamer than would naively be expected for infinite-dimensional dynamical systems. The authors present a correspondence between dynamics of classes of parabolic equations and dynamics of flows generated by vector fields of low-dimensional manifolds. For example, flows generated by parabolic equations on an interval are similar to one-dimensional flows, and flows generated by parabolic equations on a circle are similar to two-dimensional flows. Results of this type and the ideas behind their proofs are surveyed, and the reader is referred to the extensive bibliography for details. Some open questions are presented. A glossary defining various basic terms and concepts is included, making the paper suitable reading for non-specialist readers and for students.