Stability of fronts in inhomogeneous wave equations (Q2346542)

The purpose of the paper is to present an overview on the existence and stability of stationary waves for nonlinear inhomogeneous wave equations with finite length spatial inhomogeneities. The overview is mainly based on the results presented in two articles where G. Derks is co-author. The articles are [\textit{C. J. K. Knight} et al., J. Differ. Equations 254, No. 2, 408--468 (2013; Zbl 1259.35029)] and [\textit{C. J. K. Knight} and the author, ``A stability criterion for the non-linear wave equation with spatial inhomogeneity'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1411.5277}]. In the considered model, the potential \(V\) is defined by means of \(N+2\) smooth homogeneous functions on intervals, \(V(x,u)=V_i(u)\) for \(x \in I_i\). The existence of stationary fronts is discussed first. One shows the way these solutions can be constructed. Since there is a large family of solutions parametrised by the values of the Hamiltonians in the middle intervals, further, one focuses the presentation on their linear as well as nonlinear stability. The last section of the paper is dedicated to some open problems and future work.