Localized patterns in periodically forced systems

Abstract

Spatially localized, time-periodic structures are common in pattern-forming systems, appearing in fluid mechanics, chemical reactions, and granular media. We examine the existence of oscillatory localized states in a PDE model with single frequency time dependent forcing, introduced in [20] as phenomenological model of the Faraday wave experiment. In this study, we reduce the PDE model to the forced complex Ginzburg-Landau equation in the limit of weak forcing and weak damping. This allows us to use the known localized solutions found in [7]. We reduce the forced complex Ginzburg-Landau equation to the Allen-Cahn equation near onset, obtaining an asymptotically exact expression for localized solutions. We also extend this analysis to the strong forcing case recovering Allen-Cahn equation directly without the intermediate step. We find excellent agreement between numerical localized solutions of the PDE, localized solutions of the forced complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, and the Allen-Cahn equation. This is the first time that a PDE with time dependent forcing has been reduced to the Allen-Cahn equation, and its localized oscillatory solutions quantitatively studied. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Thomas Wagenknecht.