Time-delayed instabilities in complex Burgers equations

For Burgers equations with real data and complex forcing terms, Lerner, Morimoto and Xu [{\it Instability of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya solution for a class of non-linear systems}, Amer.~J.~Math.~2010] proved that only analytical data generate local $C^2$ solutions. The corresponding instabilities are however not observed numerically; rather, numerical simulations show an exponential growth only after a delay in time. We argue that numerical diffusion is responsible for this time delay, as we prove that for Burgers equations in the torus with small viscosity and a complex forcing, oscillating data generate solutions which grow linearly in time before growing exponentially. Numerical simulations illustrate the results.