Solutions of the Cahn-Hilliard equation on a periodic domain, as obtained from direct numerical simulation. Red means ρ = 0, blue means ρ = −1. The initial conditions were randomly perturbed homogeneous solutions. In the first row ˆρ = −0.4, in the second row ˆρ = −0.1, and in the third row ˆρ = 0. In each row, time increases from left to right. The coarsening of the structures towards higher average wavelength can be clearly seen. Comparing the pictures of each column, one can see the different morphologies of the resulting patterns, going from circular domains to labyrinthine patterns as ˆρ → 0.