Multiple front and pulse solutions in spatially periodic systems

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a comprehensive mathematical toolbox for the construction and spectral stability analysis of stationary multiple front and pulse solutions to general semilinear evolution problems on the real line with spatially periodic coefficients. Starting from a collection of $N$ nondegenerate primary front solutions with matching periodic end states, we realize multifront solutions near a formal concatenation of these $N$ primary fronts, provided the distances between the front interfaces is sufficiently large. Moreover, we prove that nondegenerate primary pulses are accompanied by periodic pulse solutions of large spatial period. We show that spectral (in)stability properties of the underlying primary fronts or pulses are inherited by the bifurcating multifronts or periodic pulse solutions. The existence and spectral analyses rely on contraction-mapping arguments and Evans-function techniques, leveraging exponential dichotomies to characterize invertibility and Fredholm properties. To demonstrate the applicability of our methods, we analyze the existence and stability of multifronts and periodic pulse solutions in some benchmark models, such as the Gross–Pitaevskii equation with periodic potential and a Klausmeier reaction-diffusion-advection system, thereby identifying novel classes of (stable) solutions. In particular, our methods yield the first spectral and orbital stability result of periodic waves in the focusing Gross–Pitaevskii equation with periodic potential, as well as new instability criteria for multipulse solutions to this equation.