Slow motion for the 1D Swift-Hohenberg equation

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to study the behavior of certain solutions to the Swift-Hohenberg equation on a one-dimensional torus $\mathbb{T}$. Combining results from $\Gamma$-convergence and ODE theory, it is shown that solutions corresponding to initial data that is $L^1$-close to a jump function $v$, remain close to $v$ for large time. This can be achieved by regarding the equation as the $L^2$-gradient flow of a second order energy functional, and obtaining asymptotic lower bounds on this energy in terms of the number of jumps of $v$.