A heteroclinic orbit is a trajectory tending to one invariant equilibrium or orbit in backward time and a different one in forward time. Coupled convection amplitudes can have such trajectories describing replacement of one convection roll orientation by another.
A heteroclinic cycle is a closed chain of invariant states connected by heteroclinic orbits. In convection-amplitude models it can describe successive convection roll switching. Existence and attraction require the global connections and their transverse stability; a single convection roll's positive invasion growth rate alone does not establish an attracting cycle.
