A central limit theorem for pulled fronts in a random medium

James Nolen; James Nolen

doi:10.3934/nhm.2011.6.167

Networks and Heterogeneous Media

2011, Volume 6, Issue 2: 167-194. doi: 10.3934/nhm.2011.6.167

Previous Article Next Article

A central limit theorem for pulled fronts in a random medium

James Nolen ^{1
,}

1.
Department of Mathematics, Duke University, Box 90320, Durham, NC, 27708-0320

Received: 01 August 2010 Revised: 01 February 2011
Primary: 35R60; Secondary: 35K57, 60H99.

We consider solutions to a nonlinear reaction diffusion equation when the reaction term varies randomly with respect to the spatial coordinate. The nonlinearity is the KPP type nonlinearity. For a stationary and ergodic medium, and for certain initial condition, the solution develops a moving front that has a deterministic asymptotic speed in the large time limit. The main result of this article is a central limit theorem for the position of the front, in the supercritical regime, if the medium satisfies a mixing condition.
- Front propagation,
- random media,
- reaction-diffusion
Citation: James Nolen. A central limit theorem for pulled fronts in a random medium[J]. Networks and Heterogeneous Media, 2011, 6(2): 167-194. doi: 10.3934/nhm.2011.6.167

Related Papers:

Abstract

We consider solutions to a nonlinear reaction diffusion equation when the reaction term varies randomly with respect to the spatial coordinate. The nonlinearity is the KPP type nonlinearity. For a stationary and ergodic medium, and for certain initial condition, the solution develops a moving front that has a deterministic asymptotic speed in the large time limit. The main result of this article is a central limit theorem for the position of the front, in the supercritical regime, if the medium satisfies a mixing condition.

References

[1]	M. Bages, P. Martinez and J.-M. Roquejoffre, How traveling waves attract the solutions of KPP-type equations, preprint 2010.
[2]	H. Berestycki and F. Hamel, Front propagation in periodic excitable media, Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 55 (2002), 949-1032. doi: 10.1002/cpa.3022
[3]	H. Berestycki and F. Hamel, Generalized travelling waves for reaction-diffusion equations, In: "Perspectives in Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations," Contemp. Math. 446, Amer. Math. Soc., (2007), 101-123.
[4]	P. Billingsley, "Convergence of Probability Measures," John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1968.
[5]	E. Brunet, B. Derrida, A. H. Mueller and S. Munier, Phenomenological theory giving the full statistics of the position of fluctuating pulled fronts, Phys. Rev. E, 73 (2006), 05126. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.73.056126
[6]	S. Chatterjee, A new method of normal approximation, Ann. Probab., 36 (2008), 1584-1610. doi: 10.1214/07-AOP370
[7]	R. Fisher, The wave of advance of advantageous genes, Ann. Eugenics, 7 (1937), 355-369. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1937.tb02153.x
[8]	M. Freidlin, "Functional Integration and Partial Differential Equations," Ann. Math. Stud. 109, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985.
[9]	J. Gärtner and M. I. Freidlin, The propagation of concentration waves in periodic and random media, Dokl. Acad. Nauk SSSR, 249 (1979), 521-525.
[10]	P. Hall and C. C. Heyde, "Martingale Limit Theory and its Application," Academic Press, New York, 1980.
[11]	F. Hamel and L. Roques, Uniqueness and stability properties of monostable pulsating fronts, J. European Math. Soc., 13 (2011), 345-390. doi: 10.4171/JEMS/256
[12]	A. N. Kolmogorov, I. G. Petrovskii and N. S. Piskunov, Étude de l'équation de la chaleurde matiére et son application à un problème biologique, Bull. Moskov. Gos. Univ. Mat. Mekh., 1 (1937), 1-25.
[13]	P.-L. Lions and P. E. Souganidis, Homogenization of viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations in stationary ergodic media, Comm. Partial Diff. Eqn., 30 (2005), 335-375. doi: 10.1081/PDE-200050077
[14]	A. Majda and P. E. Souganidis, Flame fronts in a turbulent combustion model with fractal velocity fields, Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 51 (1998), 1337-1348. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0312(199811/12)51:11/12<1337::AID-CPA4>3.0.CO;2-B
[15]	P. Martinez and J.-M. Roquejoffre, Convergence to critical waves in KPP-type equations, Preprint 2010.
[16]	A. Mellet, J. Nolen, J.-M. Roquejoffre and L. Ryzhik, Stability of generalized transition fronts, Communications in PDE, 34 (2009), 521-552. doi: 10.1080/03605300902768677
[17]	C. Mueller and R. Sowers, Random travelling waves for the KPP equation with noise, J. Funct. Anal., 128 (1995), 439-498. doi: 10.1006/jfan.1995.1038
[18]	J. Nolen, An invariance principle for random traveling waves in one dimension, SIAM J. Math. Anal., 43 (2011), 153-188. doi: 10.1137/090746513
[19]	J. Nolen and L. Ryzhik, Traveling waves in a one-dimensional heterogeneous medium, AIHP - Analyse Non Linéaire, 26 (2009), 1021-1047.
[20]	J. Nolen and J. Xin, Asymptotic spreading of KPP reactive fronts in incompressible space-time random flows, AIHP - Analyse Non Linéaire, 26 (2008), 815-839.
[21]	J. Nolen and J. Xin, KPP fronts in 1D random drift, Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems B, 11 (2009), 421-442. doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2009.11.421
[22]	A. Rocco, U. Ebert and W. van Saarloos, Subdiffusive fluctuations of "pulled" fronts with multiplicative noise, Phys. Rev. E, 62 (2000), R13-R16. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.62.R13
[23]	W. Shen, Traveling waves in diffusive random media, J. Dynamics and Diff. Eqns., 16 (2004), 1011-1060. doi: 10.1007/s10884-004-7832-x
[24]	R. Tribe, A travelling wave solution to the Kolmogorov equation with noise, Stochastics Stochastics Rep., 56 (1996), 317-340.
[25]	W. van Saarloos, Front propagation into unstable states, Physics Reports, 386 (2003), 29-222. doi: 10.1016/j.physrep.2003.08.001
[26]	J. Xin, "An Introduction to Fronts in Random Media," Springer, New York, 2009. doi: 10.1007/978-0-387-87683-2

Reader Comments

Your name:*

Email:*
© 2011 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)