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Abstract We investigate the slow passage through a pitchfork bifurcation in a spatially extended system, when the onset of instability is slowly varying in space. We focus here on the critical parameter scaling, when the instability locus propagates with speed , where is a small parameter that measures the gradient of the parameter ramp. Our results establish how the instability is mediated by a front traveling with the speed of the parameter ramp, and demonstrate scalings for a delay or advance of the instability relative to the bifurcation locus depending on the sign of , that is on the direction of propagation of the parameter ramp through the pitchfork bifurcation. The results also include a generalization of the classical Hastings–McLeod solution of the Painlevé‐II equation to Painlevé‐II equations with a drift term. 

Abstract Pattern forming systems allow for a wealth of states, where wavelengths and orientation of patterns varies and defects disrupt patches of monocrystalline regions. Growth of patterns has long been recognized as a strong selection mechanism. We present here recent and new results on the selection of patterns in situations where the pattern-forming region expands in time. The wealth of phenomena is roughly organised in bifurcation diagrams that depict wavenumbers of selected crystalline states as functions of growth rates. We show how a broad set of mathematical and numerical tools can help shed light into the complexity of this selection process. 

We study the modulational dynamics of striped patterns formed in the wake of a planar directional quench. Such quenches, which move across a medium and nucleate pattern-forming instabilities in their wake, have been shown in numerous applications to control and select the wavenumber and orientation of striped phases. In the context of the prototypical complex Ginzburg–Landau and Swift–Hohenberg equations, we use a multiple-scale analysis to derive a one-dimensional viscous Burgers’ equation, which describes the long-wavelength modulational and defect dynamics in the direction transverse to the quenching motion, that is, along the quenching line. We show that the wavenumber selecting properties of the quench determine the nonlinear flux parameter in the Burgers’ modulation equation, while the viscosity parameter of the Burgers’ equation is naturally determined by the transverse diffusivity of the pure stripe state. We use this approximation to accurately characterize the transverse dynamics of several types of defects formed in the wake, including grain boundaries and phase-slips. 

WestudytheeectsoflocalizationonthelongtimeasymptoticsofamodiedcompressibleNavier-Stokessystem (mcNS) inspired by the previous work of Ho and Zumbrun [4]. We introduce a new decomposition of the momentum eld into its irrotational and incompressible parts, and a new method for approximating solutions of jointly hyperbolic-parabolic equations in terms of Hermite functions in which nth order approximations can be computed for solutions with nth order moments. We then obtain existence of solutions to the mcNS system in weighted spaces and, based on the decay rates obtained for the various pieces of the solutions, determine the optimal choice of asymptotic approximation with respect to the various localization assumptions, which in certain cases can be evaluated explicitly in terms of Hermite functions. 

Abstract In this article, the recently discovered phenomenon of delayed Hopf bifurcations (DHB) in reaction–diffusion partial differential equations (PDEs) is analysed in the cubic Complex Ginzburg–Landau equation, as an equation in its own right, with a slowly varying parameter. We begin by using the classical asymptotic methods of stationary phase and steepest descents on the linearized PDE to show that solutions, which have approached the attracting quasi-steady state (QSS) before the Hopf bifurcation remain near that state for long times after the instantaneous Hopf bifurcation and the QSS has become repelling. In the complex time plane, the phase function of the linearized PDE has a saddle point, and the Stokes and anti-Stokes lines are central to the asymptotics. The non-linear terms are treated by applying an iterative method to the mild form of the PDE given by perturbations about the linear particular solution. This tracks the closeness of solutions near the attracting and repelling QSS in the full, non-linear PDE. Next, we show that beyond a key Stokes line through the saddle there is a curve in the space-time plane along which the particular solution of the linear PDE ceases to be exponentially small, causing the solution of the non-linear PDE to diverge from the repelling QSS and exhibit large-amplitude oscillations. This curve is called the space–time buffer curve. The homogeneous solution also stops being exponentially small in a spatially dependent manner, as determined also by the initial data and time. Hence, a competition arises between these two solutions, as to which one ceases to be exponentially small first, and this competition governs spatial dependence of the DHB. We find four different cases of DHB, depending on the outcomes of the competition, and we quantify to leading order how these depend on the main system parameters, including the Hopf frequency, initial time, initial data, source terms, and diffusivity. Examples are presented for each case, with source terms that are a uni-modal function, a smooth step function, a spatially periodic function and an algebraically growing function. Also, rich spatio-temporal dynamics are observed in the post-DHB oscillations. Finally, it is shown that large-amplitude source terms can be designed so that solutions spend substantially longer times near the repelling QSS, and hence, region-specific control over the delayed onset of oscillations can be achieved. 

Abstract We consider pattern-forming fronts in the complex Ginzburg–Landau equation with a traveling spatial heterogeneity which destabilises, or quenches, the trivial ground state while progressing through the domain. We consider the regime where the heterogeneity propagates with speed c just below the linear invasion speed of the pattern-forming front in the associated homogeneous system. In this situation, the front locks to the interface of the heterogeneity leaving a long intermediate state lying near the unstable ground state, possibly allowing for growth of perturbations. This manifests itself in the spectrum of the linearisation about the front through the accumulation of eigenvalues onto the absolute spectrum associated with the unstable ground state. As the quench speed c increases towards the linear invasion speed, the absolute spectrum stabilises with the same rate at which eigenvalues accumulate onto it allowing us to rigorously establish spectral stability of the front in L 2 ( R ) . The presence of unstable absolute spectrum poses a technical challenge as spatial eigenvalues along the intermediate state no longer admit a hyperbolic splitting and standard tools such as exponential dichotomies are unavailable. Instead, we projectivise the linear flow, and use Riemann surface unfolding in combination with a superposition principle to study the evolution of subspaces as solutions to the associated matrix Riccati differential equation on the Grassmannian manifold. Eigenvalues can then be identified as the roots of the meromorphic Riccati–Evans function, and can be located using winding number and parity arguments.