Structure of periodic solutions and asymptotic behavior for time-periodic reaction-diffusion equations on \(\mathbb{R}\) (Q5954436)

The authors consider the Cauchy problem \[ u_t-u_{xx} =f(t,u),\;x\in \mathbb{R},\;t>0,\;u(0,x)= u_0,\;x\in\mathbb{R}. \tag{1} \] Here \(f:\mathbb{R}^2 \to\mathbb{R}\) is smooth and \(\tau\)-periodic in \(t\) for some \(\tau>0\). One seeks solutions in the Banach space \(C_0(\mathbb{R})\) of functions continuous on \(\mathbb{R}\) which vanish at infinity, provided with the sup-norm \(|f|= \sup|f(x)|\), \(x\in \mathbb{R}\). It is assumed that \(f\) satisfies one of the following conditions: (HNw) \(f(t,0)=0\), \(t\in \mathbb{R}\), and there is \(\delta>0\) such that \(f_u(t,u)\leq 0\) for \(t \in \mathbb{R}\) and \(|u|<\delta\) and (HNs) \(f(t,0)=0\), \(t\in\mathbb{R}\) and \(f_u(t,0) <0\), \(t\in\mathbb{R}\). Theorem 1.1 states that if (HNs) holds, and if \(u(t,\cdot)\), \(t\geq 0\) is a solution of (1) such that the trajectory \(\{u(t,\cdot)/t \geq 0\}\) is relatively compact in \(C_0(\mathbb{R})\) then there is a \(\tau\)-periodic solution \(p(t,\cdot) \in C_0(\mathbb{R})\) (i.e. \(p(t+ \tau,x)= p(t,x))\) of (1) such that \(\lim \|p(t,\cdot)- u(t,\cdot) \|\to 0\) as \(t\to\infty\). Theorem 1.2 describes properties of \(\tau\)-periodic solutions \(p(t,\cdot) \) of (1) under the assumption that (HNw) holds. If one imposes further assumptions on \(f\) then Theorems 1.1-1.3 assert the existence of a solution of (1) whose trajectory is relatively compact in \(C_0(\mathbb{R})\). The proofs of Theorems 1.1-1.3 are quite involved. They start with an investigation of the solutions of the linear equation \[ v_t-v_{xx}= c(x,t)v,\;x\in\mathbb{R},\;t\geq\tau_0, \text{ some }\tau_0,\tag{2} \] where \(c(x,t)\) is continuous on \(\mathbb{R}\times [\tau_0,\infty)\) and where \(v(t, \cdot)\in C_0(\mathbb{R})\). Of crucial importance for later considerations is the structure of nodal sets \(N_v=\{(x,t)/v(x,t)=0\}\) for solutions \(v\) of (2). A series of lemmas (Lemma 2.1-2.4)), whose proofs are quite subtle, describe the structure of \(N_v\). Next the structure of \(\omega\)-limit sets of (1) and of \(\tau\)-periodic solutions is investigated. Finally, given a \(\tau\)-periodic solution \(p(t,x)\) of (1), the authors consider the linear operators \[ L(t)v= v_{xx}+ f_u\bigl(t,p(t,x) \bigr)v, \quad L(\tau) =\pi \] with properly defined domains. Based on Lemmas 2.1-2.4 they prove Theorem 4.1 which asserts among others that the spectrum \(\sigma(\pi)\) has the form \(\sigma (\pi)=\{1, \lambda_1 \}\cup\sigma_2\), \(\lambda_1>1\), with \(\sigma_2\) a compact subset of \(\{\lambda/ |\lambda |<1\}\) and with \(1,\lambda_1\) algebraically simple eigenvalues of \(\pi\). With Theorem 4.1 at hand, dynamical systems theory can be invoked which asserts that a center manifold \(M_{\text{cc}}\) and an unstable manifold \(M_{\text{u}}\) are associated with the eigenvalues 1 and \(\lambda_1\), respectively. A refined analysis, based again on Lemmas 2.1-2.4, ultimately leads to the proof of Theorem 1.1, 1.2. The final part of the paper is concerned with the proof of Theorem 1.3 and with examples.