Periodic traveling waves and locating oscillating patterns in multidimensional domains

Abstract

We establish the existence and robustness of layered, time-periodic solutions to a reaction-diffusion equation in a bounded domain in R n \mathbb {R}^n , when the diffusion coefficient is sufficiently small and the reaction term is periodic in time and bistable in the state variable. Our results suggest that these patterned, oscillatory solutions are stable and locally unique. The location of the internal layers is characterized through a periodic traveling wave problem for a related one-dimensional reaction-diffusion equation. This one-dimensional problem is of independent interest and for this we establish the existence and uniqueness of a heteroclinic solution which, in constant-velocity moving coodinates, is periodic in time. Furthermore, we prove that the manifold of translates of this solution is globally exponentially asymptotically stable.