Stability of travelling waves with interface conditions (Q4032231)

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the solution to a class of parabolic two-phase free boundary problems describing combustion phenomena in one space dimension \(x\) and time \(t\). The interface conditions at the unknown moving front are given by the continuity of the unknown and the discontinuity of the gradient of it (constant jump independent of \(x\) and \(t\)). The problem is completed by Dirichlet conditions at \(x=\pm\infty\) and initial conditions at \(t=0\). Provided a constant speed of the front this kind of problem allows to establish travelling waves determined by the solution of a system of ordinary differential equations. Of major interest in the present paper is the stability analysis of the difference between the solution of the above mentioned problem and the travelling wave solution subject to initial conditions. To do this, the problem is reformulated as an initial value problem in some Banach space. More precisely, the principle of linearized stability for semilinear equations is extended to a class of fully nonlinear evolution equations. Exploiting the results of this abstract theory, conditions are given so that the solution of the original problem converges exponentially to a travelling wave solution. Finally, as application example the deflagration-detonation problem (transition from a low-speed combustion wave to a high-speed one) is considered and the derived stability analysis is applied. The physical framework of this problem is summarized in the Appendix.