Inside dynamics of pulled and pushed fronts (Q456615)

The authors consider the one-dimensional reaction-diffusion equation \[ \partial_tu=\partial_x^2u+f(u), \qquad t>0, \;x\in\mathbb{R}, \] where \(u\in [0,1]\). It is assumed that \[ f\in C^1([0,1]), \quad f(0)=f(1)=0, \quad \int_{0}^{1}f(s)ds>0. \] There are three basic cases for \(f\): (A) \(f'(0)>0\), \(f'(1)<0\) and \(f>0\) in \((0,1)\), then \(f\) is monostable; (B) \(f'(0)<0\), \(f'(1)<0\), there exists \(\rho \in (0,1)\), such that \(f<0\) in \((0,\rho )\) and \(f>0\) in \((\rho ,1)\), then \(f\) is bistable; (C) \(f'(1)<0\), there exists \(\rho \in (0,1)\), such that \(f=0\) in \((0,\rho )\) and \(f>0\) in \((\rho ,1)\), then \(f\) is ignition type. The above stated reaction-diffusion equation admits for the three cases of \(f\) some traveling wave solutions of the form \(u=U(x-ct)\) (\(c\in\mathbb{R}\)), where the profile \(U\in C^3(\mathbb{R})\). It turns out that the function \(U\) satisfies a nonlinear elliptic equation. It is assumed that fronts contain two components: identical diffusion and growth rates. It is shown that any localized component of a pulled front converges locally to zero at large times in the moving frame of the front. At the same time any component of the pushed front converges to a well determined positive proportion of the form in the moving frame. In the bistable and ignition cases, the fronts are proved to be pushed as they share the same inside structure as the pushed monostable critical fronts. Uniform convergence and estimates of the left and right spreading speeds of the components of pulled and pushed fronts are discussed as well.