Spatiotemporal structures in a model with delay and diffusion

Abstract

Pattern formation described by differential-difference equations with diffusion is investigated. It is shown that an arbitrarily small diffusion induces space-time turbulence just at the instability threshold of the homogeneous stationary solution. We prove this property by deriving a complex Ginzburg-Landau equation on the basis of normal form analysis. Well above threshold, such turbulent structures give way to synchronized states ordered by spirals and targets. This secondary instability can be understood with an asymptotic method representing the system as a cellular automaton network.