English

Ancient multiple-layer solutions to the Allen-Cahn equation

Analysis of PDEs 2017-03-28 v1

Abstract

We consider the parabolic one-dimensional Allen-Cahn equation ut=uxx+u(1u2)(x,t)R×(,0].u_t= u_{xx}+ u(1-u^2)\quad (x,t)\in \mathbb{R}\times (-\infty, 0]. The steady state w(x)=tanh(x/2)w(x) =\tanh (x/\sqrt{2}), connects, as a "transition layer" the stable phases 1-1 and +1+1. We construct a solution uu with any given number kk of transition layers between 1-1 and +1+1. At main order they consist of kk time-traveling copies of ww with interfaces diverging one to each other as tt\to -\infty. More precisely, we find u(x,t)j=1k(1)j1w(xξj(t))+12((1)k11)ast, u(x,t) \approx \sum_{j=1}^k (-1)^{j-1}w(x-\xi_j(t)) + \frac 12 ((-1)^{k-1}- 1)\quad \hbox{as} t\to -\infty, where the functions ξj(t)\xi_j(t) satisfy a first order Toda-type system. They are given by ξj(t)=12(jk+12)log(t)+γjk,j=1,...,k,\xi_j(t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(j-\frac{k+1}{2}\right)\log(-t)+\gamma_{jk},\quad j=1,...,k, for certain explicit constants γjk.\gamma_{jk}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1703.08796,
  title  = {Ancient multiple-layer solutions to the Allen-Cahn equation},
  author = {Manuel del Pino and Konstantinos T. Gkikas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.08796},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T18:57:03.886Z