Spatial periodic forcing can displace patterns it is intended to control.

Spatial periodic forcing of pattern-forming systems is an important, but lightly studied, method of controlling patterns. It can be used to control the amplitude and wave number of one-dimensional periodic patterns, to stabilize unstable patterns, and to induce them below instability onset. We show that, although in one spatial dimension the forcing acts to reinforce the patterns, in two dimensions it acts to destabilize or displace them by inducing two-dimensional rectangular and oblique patterns.