Localized radial solutions of the Swift–Hohenberg equation

Abstract

Stationary localized solutions of the planar Swift–Hohenberg equation are investigated in the parameter region where the trivial solution is stable. In the parameter region where rolls bifurcate subcritically, localized radial ring-like pulses are shown to bifurcate from the trivial solution. Furthermore, radial spot-like pulses are shown to bifurcate from the trivial state, regardless of the criticality of roll patterns. These theoretical results apply also to general reaction–diffusion systems near Turing instabilities. Numerical computations show that planar radial pulses ‘snake’ near the Maxwell point where, by definition, the one-dimensional roll patterns have the same energy as the trivial state. These computations also reveal that spots, which are stable in a certain parameter region, become unstable with respect to hexagonal perturbations, leading to fully localized hexagon patterns.