Abstract

In these two lectures I will show examples of spatially localized structures arising in different types of fluid flows and will describe physical and mathematical approaches that have proved useful to understanding the origin of localization and the properties of the localized structures that result. I will illustrate these ideas using model equations such as the Swift-Hohenberg equation and the conserved Swift-Hohenberg equation and apply the results to systems modeled by the Navier-Stokes equation on the one hand and dynamical density function theory on the other. I will also remark on the motion of fronts separating different but structured phases and relate the growth of localized structures to the problem of structure formation on growing domains.