Propagating Terraces and the Dynamics of Front-Like Solutions of Reaction-Diffusion Equations on R

ut=uxx+f(u),x∈R,t>0,

where f a C1 function. Assuming that 0 and γ>0 are constant steady states, the author investigates the large-time behavior of the front-like solutions, that is, solutions u whose initial values u(x,0) are near γ for x≈−∞ and near 0 for x≈∞. If the steady states 0 and γ are both stable, the main theorem shows that at large times, the graph of u(⋅,t) is arbitrarily close to a propagating terrace (a system of stacked traveling fonts). The author proves this result without requiring monotonicity of u(⋅,0) or the nondegeneracy of zeros of f.

The case when one or both of the steady states 0, γ is unstable is considered as well. As a corollary to the author's theorems, he shows that all front-like solutions are quasiconvergent: their ω-limit sets with respect to the locally uniform convergence consist of steady states. In the author's proofs he employs phase plane analysis, intersection comparison (or, zero number) arguments, and a geometric method involving the spatial trajectories {(u(x,t),ux(x,t)):x∈R}, t>0, of the solutions in question.