Variational principle for nonlinear wave propagation in dissipative systems

The dynamics of many natural systems is dominated by nonlinear waves propagating through the medium. We show that in any extended system that supports nonlinear wave fronts with positive surface tension, the asymptotic wave-front dynamics can be formulated as a gradient system, even when the underlying evolution equations for the field variables cannot be written as a gradient system. The variational potential is simply given by a linear combination of the occupied volume and surface area of the wave front and changes monotonically over time.