We establish selection of critical pulled fronts in invasion processes. Our result shows convergence to a pulled front with a logarithmic shift for open sets of steep initial data, including one-sided compactly supported initial conditions. We rely on robust, conceptual assumptions, namely existence and marginal spectral stability of a front traveling at the linear spreading speed. We demonstrate that the assumptions hold for open classes of spatially extended systems. Previous results relied on comparison principles or probabilistic tools with implied non-open conditions on initial data and structure of the equation. Technically, we describe the invasion process through the interaction of a Gaussian leading edge with the pulled front in the wake. Key ingredients are sharp linear decay estimates to control errors in the nonlinear matching and corrections from initial data.
We prove that the critical pulled front of Lotka-Volterra competition systems is nonlinearly asymptotically stable. More precisely, we show that perturbations of the critical front decay algebraically with rate $t^{-3/2}$ in a weighted $L^\infty$ space. Our proof relies on pointwise semigroup methods and utilizes in a crucial way that the faster decay rate $t^{-3/2}$ is a consequence of the lack of an embedded zero of the Evans function at the origin for the linearized problem around the critical front.
We study nonlinear stability of pulled fronts in scalar parabolic equations on the real line of arbitrary order, under conceptual assumptions on existence and spectral stability of fronts. In this general setting, we establish sharp algebraic decay rates and temporal asymptotics of perturbations to the front. Some of these results are known for the specific example of the Fisher-KPP equation, and our results can thus be viewed as establishing universality of some aspects of this simple model. We also give a precise description of how the spatial localization of perturbations to the front affec…
We analyze the transition between pulled and pushed fronts both analytically and numerically from a model-independent perspective. Based on minimal conceptual assumptions, we show that pushed fronts bifurcate from a branch of pulled fronts with an effective speed correction that scales quadratically in the bifurcation parameter. Strikingly, we find that in this general context without assumptions on comparison principles, the pulled front loses stability and gives way to a pushed front when monotonicity in the leading edge is lost. Our methods rely on far-field core decompositions that identif…
We investigate the inside structure of one-dimensional reaction-diffusion traveling fronts. The reaction terms are of the monostable, bistable or ignition types. Assuming that the fronts are made of several components with identical diffusion and growth rates, we analyze the spreading properties of each component. In the monostable case, the fronts are classified as pulled or pushed ones, depending on the propagation speed. We prove that any localized component of a pulled front converges locally to 0 at large times in the moving frame of the front, while any component of a pushed front conver…
We investigate a specific reaction-diffusion system that admits a monostable pulled front propagating at constant critical speed. When a small parameter changes sign, the stable equilibrium behind the front destabilizes, due to essential spectrum crossing the imaginary axis, causing a Turing bifurcation. Despite both equilibrium states are unstable, the front continues to exist, and is shown to be asymptotically stable, against suitably-localized perturbations, with algebraic temporal decay rate $t^{-3/2}$. To obtain such decay, we rely on point-wise semigroup estimates, and show that the Turi…
In this work we investigate the issue of logarithmic drifts in the position of the level sets of solutions of monostable reaction-diusion equations, with respect to the traveling front with minimal speed. On the one hand, it is a celebrated result of Bramson that such a logarithmic drift occurs when the reaction is of the KPP (or sublinear) type. On the other hand, it is also known that this drift phenomenon disappears when the minimal front speed is nonlinearly determined. However, some monostable reaction-diusion equations fall in neither of those cases and our aim is to fill that gap. We pr…
We consider the long time behavior of the solutions to the Burgers-FKPP equation with advection of a strength $β\in\mathbb{R}$. This equation exhibits a transition from pulled to pushed front behavior at $β_c=2$. We prove convergence of the solutions to a traveling wave in a reference frame centered at a position $m_β(t)$ and study the asymptotics of the front location $m_β(t)$. When $β< 2$, it has the same form as for the standard Fisher-KPP equation established by Bramson \cite{Bramson1,Bramson2}: $m_β(t) = 2t - (3/2)\log(t) + x_\infty + o(1)$ as $t\to+\infty$. This form is typical of pulled…
We uncover a seemingly previously unnoticed algebraic structure of a large class of reaction-diffusion equations and use it, in particular, to study the long time behavior of the solutions and their convergence to traveling waves in the pulled and pushed regimes, as well as at the pushmi-pullyu boundary. One such new object introduced in this paper is the shape defect function, which, indirectly, measures the difference between the profiles of the solution and the traveling wave. While one can recast the classical notion of `steepness' in terms of the positivity of the shape defect function, i…
We study the effect of a cut-off on the speed of pulled fronts of the one dimensional reaction diffusion equation. We prove rigorous upper and lower bounds on the speed in terms of the cut-off parameter epsilon. From these bounds we estimate the range of validity of the Brunet--Derrida formula for a general class of reaction terms.
We study invasion fronts in the FitzHugh--Nagumo equation in the oscillatory regime using singular perturbation techniques. Phenomenologically, localized perturbations of the unstable steady-state grow and spread, creating temporal oscillations whose phase is modulated spatially. The phase modulation appears to be selected by an invasion front that describes the behavior in the leading edge of the spreading process. We construct these invasion fronts for large regions of parameter space using singular perturbation techniques. Key ingredients are the construction of periodic orbits, their unsta…
Fondazione Bruno Kessler（布鲁诺·克斯勒基金会）；University of Trento（特伦托大学）；University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales（高等社会科学学院）；Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学）；Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Complexity Science Hub（复杂性科学中心）
