We consider the front between conductive and stationary convective states in a one-dimensional system exhibiting a subcritical bifurcation and show that it can be pinned to the underlying roll structure. This effect leads to the appearance of confined convective structures of arbitrary length. The pinning originates with the nonadiabatic effect which we study analytically. The pinning of traveling waves is discussed but the confinement, which for that case was observed experimentally, remains unexplained.

• Received 30 June 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.38.5461