A new space-time discretization for the Swift-Hohenberg equation that strictly respects the Lyapunov functional

The Swift-Hohenberg equation is a central nonlinear model in modern physics. Originally derived to describe the onset and evolution of roll patterns in Rayleigh-Benard convection, it has also been applied to study a variety of complex fluids and biological materials, including neural tissues. The Swift-Hohenberg equation may be derived from a Lyapunov functional using a variational argument. Here, we introduce a new fully-discrete algorithm for the Swift-Hohenberg equation which inherits the nonlinear stability property of the continuum equation irrespectively of the time step. We present several numerical examples that support our theoretical results and illustrate the efficiency, accuracy and stability of our new algorithm. We also compare our method to other existing schemes, showing that is feasible alternative to the available methods. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.