English

FKPP fronts in quenched random media

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2026-05-15 v1 Statistical Mechanics Analysis of PDEs

Abstract

We study numerically the evolution of one-dimensional FKPP fronts initiated from steep initial conditions in the presence of a quenched random growth rate. Compared to both the homogeneous case (with velocity v0v_0) and deterministic disorder, quenched randomness increases the average propagation speed. We show that the velocity shift relative to the homogeneous case scales linearly with the disorder variance σ2\sigma^2, with a universal prefactor -- independent of the specific distribution of the disorder -- such that v=v0+aσ2v = v_0 + a \sigma^2, with a0.02432±0.00002a \approx 0.02432 \pm 0.00002. Moreover, the front position exhibits diffusive fluctuations across disorder realizations. The corresponding effective diffusion coefficient scales quadratically with σ\sigma, D=b2σ22D = \frac{b^2 \sigma^2}{2}, with b0.223±0.002b \approx 0.223 \pm 0.002. These results suggest a universal statistical response of FKPP fronts to quenched heterogeneity.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.14914,
  title  = {FKPP fronts in quenched random media},
  author = {Ulysse Marquis and Henri Berestycki and Marc Barthelemy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.14914},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

7 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:12:32.175Z