Kinetic schemes for assessing stability of traveling fronts for the Allen-Cahn equation with relaxation (Q2000107)

The present manuscript is devoted to the numerical simulation of some relaxed scalar reaction-diffusion equations. The Allen-Cahn equation is treated as the main running example. The article begins with a review of the main properties of travelling wave solutions to the Allen-Cahn and Fisher-KPP equations. Then, the authors present a couple of extensions of these equations (Maxwell-Cattaneo's and Guyer-Krumhansl's laws) to transform them to close, but hyperbolic models. The main `trick' consists in relaxing the famous Fourier(-Fick-Darcy-Ohm) law. Some physical rationale behind this modification is also presented. Once they obtain a nearby hyperbolic model, the finite volumes technology can be applied starting from the kinetic representation of the governing equations. Then, relatively standard first- and second-order schemes (in space) are proposed with an implicit-explicit discretization in time. Higher-order discretization in time could be employed, but not described in the text. The devised numerical scheme is used to study numerically the stability and attracting properties of fronts. In some cases, the authors employ only their first-order scheme when the source term has the bi-stable nature. The authors mention also one drawback of their approach: the dissipation mechanism of the hyperbolic model is weaker than one of its classical parabolic counterpart. It would be also desirable to justify the transposition of the conclusions obtained on the relaxed hyperbolic model to the original equation.