Speaker: 

Tau Shean Lim

Institution: 

Univ Wisconsin at Madison

Time: 

Monday, September 26, 2016 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Host: 

Location: 

RH 306

We discuss traveling front solutions u(t,x) = U(x-ct) of reaction-diffusion equations u_t = Lu + f(u) with ignition media f and diffusion operators L generated by symmetric Levy processes X_t. Existence and uniqueness of fronts are well-known in the case of classical diffusion (i.e., Lu = Laplacian(u)) and non-local diffusion (Lu = J*u - u). Our work extends these results to general Levy operators. In particular, we show that a strong diffusivity in the underlying process (in the sense that the first moment of X_1 is infinite) prevents formation of fronts, while a weak diffusivity gives rise to a unique (up to translation) front U and speed c>0.