Hopping behavior in the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation.

We report the first observations of numerical "hopping" cellular flame patterns found in computer simulations of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. Hopping states are characterized by nonuniform rotations of a ring of cells, in which individual cells make abrupt changes in their angular positions while they rotate around the ring. Until now, these states have been observed only in experiments but not in truly two-dimensional computer simulations. A modal decomposition analysis of the simulated patterns, via the proper orthogonal decomposition, reveals spatio-temporal behavior in which the overall temporal dynamics is similar to that of equivalent experimental states but the spatial dynamics exhibits a few more features that are not seen in the experiments. Similarities in the temporal behavior and subtle differences in the spatial dynamics between numerical hopping states and their experimental counterparts are discussed in more detail.