Dynamic effects induced by renormalization in anisotropic pattern forming systems

The dynamics of patterns in large two-dimensional domains remains a challenge in non-equilibrium phenomena. Often it is addressed through mild extensions of one-dimensional equations. We show that full 2D generalizations of the latter can lead to unexpected dynamical behavior. As an example we consider the anisotropic Kuramoto-Sivashinsy equation, that is a generic model of anisotropic pattern forming systems and has been derived in different instances of thin film dynamics. A rotation of a ripple pattern by 90◦ occurs in the system evolution when nonlinearities are strongly suppressed along one direction. This effect originates in non-linear parameter renormalization at different rates in the two system dimensions, showing a dynamical interplay between scale invariance and wavelength selection. Potential experimental realizations of this phenomenon are identified.