The logarithmic delay of KPP fronts in a periodic medium (Q268590)

Propagation is studied for the solution \(u\) to the reaction-diffusion equation \[ \partial_t u - \partial_x^2 u = f(\cdot,u)\;, \qquad (t,x)\in (0,\infty)\times\mathbb{R}\;, \] starting from an initial condition \(u_0\) which is non-negative and compactly supported. The function \(f\in C^1(\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R})\) satisfies the following properties: \(x\mapsto f(x,r)\) is \(1\)-periodic for all \(r\in\mathbb{R}\), \(r\mapsto f(x,r)\) is concave with \(f(x,0)=0\) for all \(x\in [0,1]\), and there is \(m>0\) such that \(\partial_r f(x,0) r - f(x,r) \geq m r^2\) for \(x\in [0,1]\) and \(r\) large enough. It is further assumed that the first periodic eigenvalue of the operator \(-\partial_x^2 - \partial_r f(\cdot,0) \mathrm{id}\) is negative. These assumptions guarantee that there is a unique positive solution \(\pi\) to \(-\pi''=f(\cdot,\pi)\) in \(\mathbb{R}\) which is also \(1\)-periodic and also the existence of \(c^*>0\) such that, for \(c\geq c^*\), there is a unique (up to time shifts) pulsating front \(U_c\) with speed \(c\). That is, \(U_ c\) solves \(\partial_t U_c - \partial_x^2 U_c = f(\cdot,U_c)\) and satisfies \(U_c(t+1/c,x) = U_c(t,x-1)\) for \((t,x)\in (0,\infty)\times\mathbb{R}\) as well as \(U_c(t,-\infty)=-1\) and \(U_c(t,\infty) = 0\). It is already known that the stationary solution \(\pi\) attracts locally uniformly \(u(t)\) as \(t\to\infty\) and a more precise description of this feature is the first contribution of the paper under review. In fact, there is \(\lambda^* > 0\) such that, for \(t\) large enough, \(u(t,x)\) is close to \(\pi(x)\) for \(x\in [0,c^* - 3 \log{t}/2\lambda^*-L]\) and close to zero for \(x>c^* - 3 (\log{t})/2\lambda^*+L\). It is further shown that \(u(t)\) behaves as the shifted pulsating front \(U_{c^*}(t - 3 (\log{t})/2c^* \lambda^*)\) as \(t\to\infty\). When \(f\) does not depend on the space variable (such as the classical KPP function \(f(r)=r(1-r)\)), a logarithmic time shift in the description of the propagation is found in [\textit{M. Bramson}, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 285, 190 p. (1983; Zbl 0517.60083)] and is here shown to take place as well in a spatially periodic setting.