English

Precise asymptotics for Fisher-KPP fronts

Analysis of PDEs 2017-12-08 v1

Abstract

We consider the one-dimensional Fisher-KPP equation with step-like initial data. Nolen, Roquejoffre, and Ryzhik showed that the solution uu converges at long time to a traveling wave ϕ\phi at a position σ~(t)=2t(3/2)logt+α03π/t\tilde \sigma(t) = 2t - (3/2)\log t + \alpha_0- 3\sqrt{\pi}/\sqrt{t}, with error O(tγ1)O(t^{\gamma-1}) for any γ>0\gamma>0. With their methods, we find a refined shift σ(t)=σ~(t)+μ(logt)/t+α1/t\sigma(t) = \tilde \sigma(t) + \mu_* (\log t)/t + \alpha_1/t such that in the frame moving with σ\sigma, the solution uu satisfies u(t,x)=ϕ(x)+ψ(x)/t+O(tγ3/2)u(t,x) = \phi (x) + \psi(x)/t + O(t^{\gamma-3/2}) for a certain profile ψ\psi independent of initial data. The coefficient α1\alpha_1 depends on initial data, but μ=9(56log2)/8\mu_* = 9(5-6\log 2)/8 is universal, and agrees with a finding of Berestycki, Brunet, and Derrida in a closely-related problem. Furthermore, we predict the asymptotic forms of σ\sigma and uu to arbitrarily high order.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.02472,
  title  = {Precise asymptotics for Fisher-KPP fronts},
  author = {Cole Graham},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.02472},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

38 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T23:10:33.602Z