pde2path is a free and easy to use Matlab continuation/bifurcation package for elliptic systems of PDEs with arbitrary many components, on general two
dimensional domains, and with rather general boundary conditions. The package
is based on the FEM of the Matlab pdetoolbox, and is explained by a number
of examples, including Bratu's problem, the Schnakenberg model, Rayleigh-Bénard
convection, and von Karman plate equations. These serve as templates to study
new problems, for which the user has to provide, via Matlab function files, a
description of the geometry, the boundary conditions, the coefficients of the PDE,
and a rough initial guess of a solution. The basic algorithm is a one parameter arclength-continuation with optional bifurcation detection and branch-switching.
Stability calculations, error control and mesh-handling, and some elementary timeintegration for the associated parabolic problem are also supported. The continuation, branch-switching, plotting etc are performed via Matlab command-line
function calls guided by the AUTO style. The software can be downloaded from
www.staff.uni-oldenburg.de/hannes.ue
ker/pde2path, where also an online documentation of the software is provided such that in this paper we focus more
on the mathematics and the example systems.