Design of Sturm global attractors 2: Time-reversible Chafee-Infante lattices of 3-nose meanders

Abstract

This sequel continues our exploration arxiv:2302.12531 of a deceptively ``simple'' class of global attractors, called Sturm due to nodal properties. They arise for the semilinear scalar parabolic PDE \begin{equation}\label{eq:*} u_t = u_{xx} + f(x,u,u_x) \tag{$*$} \end{equation} on the unit interval $0 < x<1$, under Neumann boundary conditions. This models the interplay of reaction, advection, and diffusion. Our classification is based on the Sturm meanders, which arise from a shooting approach to the ODE boundary value problem of equilibrium solutions $u=v(x)$. Specifically, we address meanders with only three ``noses'', each of which is innermost to a nested family of upper or lower meander arcs. The Chafee-Infante paradigm of 1974, with cubic nonlinearity $f=f(u)$, features just two noses. We present, and fully prove, a precise description of global PDE connection graphs, graded by Morse index, for such gradient-like Morse-Smale systems \eqref{eq:*}. The directed edges denote PDE heteroclinic orbits $v_1 \leadsto v_2$ between equilibrium vertices $v_1, v_2$ of adjacent Morse index. The connection graphs can be described as a lattice-like structure of Chafee-Infante subgraphs. However, this simple description requires us to adjoin a single ``equilibrium'' vertex, formally, at Morse level -1. Surprisingly, for parabolic PDEs based on irreversible diffusion, the connection graphs then also exhibit global time reversibility.