Nonlinear modulational stability of periodic traveling-wave solutions of the generalized Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation

In this paper we consider the spectral and nonlinear stabilities of periodic traveling wave solutions of a generalized Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation. In particular, we resolve the long-standing question of nonlinear modulational stability by demonstrating that spectrally stable waves are nonlinearly stable when subject to small localized (integrable) perturbations. Our analysis is based upon detailed estimates of the linearized solution operator, which are complicated by the fact that the (necessarily essential) spectrum of the associated linearization intersects the imaginary axis at the origin. We carry out a numerical Evans function study of the spectral problem and find bands of spectrally stable periodic traveling waves, in close agreement with previous numerical studies of Frisch–She–Thual, Bar–Nepomnyashchy, Chang–Demekhin–Kopelevich, and others carried out by other techniques. We also compare predictions of the associated Whitham modulation equations, which formally describe the dynamics of weak large scale perturbations of a periodic wave train, with numerical time evolution studies, demonstrating their effectiveness at a practical level. For the reader’s convenience, we include in an appendix the corresponding treatment of the Swift–Hohenberg equation, a nonconservative counterpart of the generalized Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation for which the nonlinear stability analysis is considerably simpler, together with numerical Evans function analyses extending spectral stability analyses of Mielke and Schneider.