Universal properties of the two-dimensional Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation

Abstract

We investigate the properties of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation in two spatial dimensions. We show by an explicit, numerical, coarse-graining procedure that its long-wavelength properties are described by a stochastic, partial differential equation of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang type. From the computed parameters in our effective, stochastic equation we argue that the length and time scales over which the correlation functions cross over from linear diffusive to those of the full nonlinear equation are very large. The behavior of the three-dimensional equation is also discussed.