Nonlinear effects on Turing patterns: time oscillations and chaos

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Aug;86(2 Pt 2):026201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.026201. Epub 2012 Aug 8.

Abstract

We show that a model reaction-diffusion system with two species in a monostable regime and over a large region of parameter space produces Turing patterns coexisting with a limit cycle which cannot be discerned from the linear analysis. As a consequence, the patterns oscillate in time. When varying a single parameter, a series of bifurcations leads to period doubling, quasiperiodic, and chaotic oscillations without modifying the underlying Turing pattern. A Ruelle-Takens-Newhouse route to chaos is identified. We also examine the Turing conditions for obtaining a diffusion-driven instability and show that the patterns obtained are not necessarily stationary for certain values of the diffusion coefficients. These results demonstrate the limitations of the linear analysis for reaction-diffusion systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Simulation
  • Diffusion
  • Linear Models
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Oscillometry / methods*
  • Physics / methods