Convergence of linear solutions through convergence of periodic initial data

Abstract

When studying the stability of T-periodic solutions to partial differential equations, it is common to encounter subharmonic perturbations, i.e. perturbations which have a period that is an integer multiple (say n) of the background wave, and localized perturbations, i.e. perturbations that are integrable on the line. Formally, we expect solutions subjected to subharmonic perturbations to converge to solutions subjected to localized perturbations as n tends to infinity since larger n values force the subharmonic perturbation to become more localized. In this paper, we study the convergence of solutions to linear initial value problems when subjected to subharmonic and localized perturbations. In particular, we prove the formal intuition outlined above; namely, we prove that if the subharmonic initial data converges to some localized initial datum, then the linear solutions converge.