Front instability in a condensed phase combustion model (Q2517395)

Let \(T\) be a renormalized temperature and \(Y\in [0,1]\) be a renormalized mass fraction of the solid reactant \(A\). The authors consider a one-dimensional thermodiffusive model in the case of a single step reaction \(A\to B\): \[ \frac{\partial T}{\partial t}=\frac{\partial^2T}{\partial x^2}+f_{\varepsilon}(T)Y,\quad \frac{\partial Y}{\partial t}=-f_{\varepsilon}(T)Y,\eqno(1) \] where \(f_{\varepsilon}(T)=\frac{1}{\varepsilon}f(1+\frac{T-1}{\epsilon})\), and there exists an ignition temperature \(\theta \in (0,1)\) such that \(f(T)=0\) as \(T\leq \theta\) and \(f(T)>0\) as \(T> \theta\). It is shown in [\textit{E. Logak} and \textit{V. Loubeau}, Asymptotic Anal. 12, No. 4, 259--294 (1996; Zbl 0865.34016)] that there exists a unique traveling wave solution \((T(x-c_{\varepsilon}t),Y(x-c_{\varepsilon}t))=(c_{\varepsilon}, T_{\varepsilon},Y_{\varepsilon})\). In this article, the authors show that there exists an \(\varepsilon_0>0\) such that, for \(0<\varepsilon<\varepsilon_0\), the traveling wave solution \((c_{\varepsilon}, T_{\varepsilon},Y_{\varepsilon})\) is linearly unstable. The methods include the construction of an Evans function, estimates in the high activation energy limit, and the deduction of the existence of zeros with non-negative real part.