English

Sharp asymptotics for the KPP equation with some front-like initial data

Analysis of PDEs 2025-06-12 v2

Abstract

We provide the first PDE proof of the celebrated Bramson's o(1)o(1) results in 1983 concerning the large time asymptotics for the KPP equation under front-like initial data of types xk+1eλxx^{k+1}e^{-\lambda_*x} and xνeλxx^{\boldsymbol{\nu}} e^{-\lambda x} as xx tends to infinity, where 0<λ<λ=f(0)0<\lambda<\lambda_*=\sqrt{f'(0)} and k,νRk, \boldsymbol{\nu}\in\mathbb{R}. Specifically, our results are the following: For the former type initial data, we prove that the position of the level sets is asymptotically ct+k2λlnt+O(1)c_*t+\frac{k}{2\lambda_*}\ln t+\mathcal{O}(1) if k>3k>-3, is ct32λlnt+1λlnlnt+O(1)c_*t-\frac{3}{2\lambda_*}\ln t+\frac{1}{\lambda_*}\ln\ln t+\mathcal{O}(1) if k=3k=-3, where c=2λc_*=2\lambda_*. In sharp contrast, if k<3k<-3 and if u0u_0 belongs to O(xk+1eλx)\mathcal{O}(x^{k+1}e^{-\lambda_* x}) for xx large, then the position of the level sets behaves asymptotically like ct32λlnt+σ+o(1)c_*t-\frac{3}{2\lambda_*}\ln t+\sigma_\infty+o(1), with σR\sigma_\infty\in\mathbb{R} depending on the initial condition u0u_0. Regarding the latter type initial data, we show that the level sets behave asymptotically like ct+νλlntct+\frac{\boldsymbol{\nu}}{\lambda}\ln t up to O(1)\mathcal{O}(1) error in general setting, with c=λ+f(0)/λc=\lambda+f'(0)/\lambda. Under the O(1)\mathcal{O}(1) results, the ``convergence along level sets'' results are also demonstrated. Moreover, we further refine the above O(1)\mathcal{O}(1) results to the ``convergence to a traveling wave'' results provided that initial data decay precisely as a multiple of the above decaying rates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.10580,
  title  = {Sharp asymptotics for the KPP equation with some front-like initial data},
  author = {Mingmin Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.10580},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:34:54.703Z