Damping filter method for obtaining spatially localized solutions.

Abstract

Spatially localized structures are key components of turbulence and other spatiotemporally chaotic systems. From a dynamical systems viewpoint, it is desirable to obtain corresponding exact solutions, though their existence is not guaranteed. A damping filter method is introduced to obtain variously localized solutions and adapted in two typical cases. This method introduces a spatially selective damping effect to make a good guess at the exact solution, and we can obtain an exact solution through a continuation with the damping amplitude. The first target is a steady solution to the Swift-Hohenberg equation, which is a representative of bistable systems in which localized solutions coexist and a model for spanwise-localized cases. Not only solutions belonging to the well-known snaking branches but also those belonging to isolated branches known as "isolas" are found with continuation paths between them in phase space extended with the damping amplitude. This indicates that this spatially selective excitation mechanism has an advantage in searching spatially localized solutions. The second target is a spatially localized traveling-wave solution to the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, which is a model for streamwise-localized cases. Since the spatially selective damping effect breaks Galilean and translational invariances, the propagation velocity cannot be determined uniquely while the damping is active, and a singularity arises when these invariances are recovered. We demonstrate that this singularity can be avoided by imposing a simple condition, and a localized traveling-wave solution is obtained with a specific propagation speed.