A multi-dimensional bistable nonlinear diffusion equation in a periodic medium

DOI10.1007/S00208-015-1349-YMaRDI QIDQ330879zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Arnaud Ducrot

Publication date 26 October 2016

Published in Mathematische Annalen (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s00208-015-1349-y

zbMATH Keywords

bistable nonlinearity entire solution parabolic equation periodic medium

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Entire solutions to PDEs (35B08) Semilinear parabolic equations (35K58)

Review text

The author studies the existence of wave solutions for a scalar nonlinear diffusion equation of the form \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t} - \operatorname{div}( A(x) \nabla u ) = F(x,u),\quad x\in\mathbb{R}^N, \eqno{(*)} \] with arbitrary dimension \(N\). The coefficients \(A\) and \(F\) are assumed to be sufficiently smooth and \(\mathbb{Z}^N\)-periodic, i.e. \(1\)-periodic in all \(x\)-directions. Moreover, the coefficient \(A\) guarantees the uniform parabolicity of the differential operator in the left-hand side of (\(*\)). Furthermore, the nonlinearity \(F\) is assumed to be of bistable type such that the equation (\(*\)) restricted to the \(N\)-dimensional torus \(\mathbb{T}^N = \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}^N\) has two stable stationary states \(\psi^- < \psi^+\) with no other stable stationary states between \(\psi^-\) and \(\psi^+\). An entire solution of equation (\(*\)) of the form \(u(x,t) = U(x\cdot e - c t, x)\), where \(U\::\:\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{T}^N\to\mathbb{R}\), \(c\in\mathbb{R}\) and \(e\in\mathbb{S}^{N-1}\) is called the traveling wave solution connecting \(\psi^-\) and \(\psi^+\), if \[ \lim\limits_{s\to\pm\infty} U(s,x) = \psi^\pm(x) \quad\text{uniformly with respect to } x\in\mathbb{T}^N. \] Depending on the quantity \[ \mathcal{I} = \int_{\mathbb{T}^N} dx \int_{\psi^-(x)}^{\psi^+(x)} F(x,s) ds, \] the author distinguishes two cases: balanced (if \(\mathcal{I} = 0\)) and nonbalanced (if \(\mathcal{I} \not= 0\)). In the former case, he proves the existence of a standing wave solution (i.e. a travelling wave with \(c=0\)), while in the latter case he proves the existence of a wave solution, which can be either a travelling wave (\(c\not=0\)) or a standing wave (\(c=0\)). The obtained results are illustrated by their application to the two-dimensional parabolic equation \[ \partial_t u = d^2 \Delta u + r(x) u ( u - a(x) ) ( 1 - u ),\quad(x,t)\in\mathbb{R}^2\times(0,\infty), \] where the diffusion coefficient \(d\) is either very small \(d\ll 1\) or very large \(d\gg 1\), and \(a,r\in C^\gamma(\mathbb{T}^2)\), \(\gamma\in(0,1)\), such that \(0 < a(x) < 1\) and \(r(x) > 0\).

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