LATERAL FRONT INSTABILITY IN AN OPEN REACTION-DIFFUSION SYSTEM

The stability of planar fronts separating two homogeneous steady state s has been studied numerically in an open reaction-diffusion system co ntaining cubic autocatalysis. Two types of cellular fronts develop fro m random perturbation of the planar symmetry. At low exchange coeffici ent the dominating diffusion of the reactant destabilizes the planar f ront, as observed in closed systems. At high exchange coefficients, on approaching a Turing bifurcation on the thermal branch, the cellular structure developed is characterized by spatial oscillations both tran sverse and parallel to the front propagation.