Geometry of Heteroclinic Cascades in Scalar Parabolic Differential Equations

We investigate the geometrical properties of the attractor for semilinear scalar parabolic PDEs on a bounded interval with Neumann boundary conditions. Using the nodal properties of the stationary solutions which are determined by an ordinary boundary value problem, we obtain crucial information about the long-time behavior for the full PDE. Especially, we prove an exact criterion for the intersection of strong-stable and strong-unstable manifolds in the finite dimensional Morse-Smale flow on the attractor.