Planforms in three dimensions

Abstract

The spatially periodic, steady-state solutions to systems of partial differential equations (PDE) are calledplanforms. There already exists a partial classification of the planforms for Euclidean equivariant systems of PDE inR ² (see [6, 7]), In this article we attempt to give such a classification for Euclidean equivariant systems of PDE inR ³. Based on the symmetry and spatial periodicity of each planform, 59 different planforms are found.

We attempt to find the planforms on all lattices inR ³ that are forced to exist near a steady-state bifurcation from a trivial solution. The proof of our classification uses Liapunov-Schmidt reduction with symmetry (which can be used if we assume spatial periodicity of the solutions) and the Equivariant Branching Lemma. The analytical problem of finding planforms for systems of PDE is reduced to the algebraic problem of computing isotropy subgroups with one dimensional fixed point subspaces.

The Navier-Stokes equations and reaction-diffusion equations (with constant diffusion coefficients) are examples of systems of PDE that satisfy the conditions of our classifications. In this article, we show that our classification applies to the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation.