Externally-driven collisions of domain walls in bistable systems near criticality

Abstract

Multi-domain solutions to the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation in presence of an external field are analyzed using the Hirota bilinearization method. Domain-wall collisions are studied in detail considering different regimes of the critical parameter. I show the dynamics of the Ising and Bloch domain walls of the Ginzburg-Landau equation in the bistable regime to be similar to that of the Landau-Lifshitz domain walls. Domain-wall reflections lead to the appearance of bubble and pattern structures. Above the Bloch-Ising transition point, spatial structures are determined by the collisions of fronts propagating into an unstable state. Mutual annihilation of such fronts is described.