Attractor bifurcation theory and its applications to Rayleigh-Bénard convection

In this note, we present a fast communication of a new bifurcation theory for nonlinear evolution equations, and its application to Rayleigh-Bénard Convection. The proofs of the main theorems presented will appear elsewhere. The bifurcation theory is based on a new notion of bifurcation, called attractor bifurcation. We show that as the parameter crosses certain critical value, the system bifurcates from a trivial steady state solution to an attractor with dimension between $m$ and $m+1$, where $m+1$ is the number of eigenvalues crosses the imaginary axis. Based on this new bifurcation theory, we obtain a nonlinear theory for bifurcation and stability of the solutions of the Boussinesq equations, and the onset of the Rayleigh-Bénard convection. In particular, we show that the problem bifurcates from the trivial solution an attractor $\mathcal A_R$ when the Rayleigh number $R$ crosses the first critical Rayleigh number $R_c$ for all physically sound boundary conditions.