Finite-time blowup for a complex Ginzburg-Landau equation

Abstract: We prove that negative energy solutions of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation $e^{-i\theta} u_t = \Delta u+ |u|^{\alpha} u$ blow up in finite time, where \alpha >0 and \pi /2<\theta <\pi /2. For a fixed initial value $u(0)$, we obtain estimates of the blow-up time $T_{max}^\theta $ as $\theta \to \pm \pi /2 $. It turns out that $T_{max}^\theta $ stays bounded (respectively, goes to infinity) as $\theta \to \pm \pi /2 $ in the case where the solution of the limiting nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation blows up in finite time (respectively, is global).