MULTIPLE FRONT PROPAGATION IN A POTENTIAL NON-GRADIENT SYSTEM

Abstract

A classification of dynamical systems in terms of their variational properties is reviewed. Within this classification, front propagation is discussed in a non-gradient relaxational potential flow. The model is motivated by transient pattern phenomena in nematics. A front propagating into an unstable homogenous state leaves behind an unstable periodic pattern, which decays via a second front and a second periodic state. An interface between unstable periodic states is shown to be a source of propagating fronts in opposite directions.

13 pages of text including 6 Figures in a tar-compressed and uuencoded file (using uufiles package). To appear in "Instabilities and Nonequilibrium Structures V", Eds. E. Tirapegui and W. Zeller, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1995. Latex version with figures available at http://formentor.uib.es/~montagne/textos/chile93