  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-Benard
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 time-integration 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.uecker/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.
