Free boundary problem for a reaction-diffusion equation with positive bistable nonlinearity

Abstract

This paper deals with a free boundary problem for a reaction-diffusion equation in a one-dimensional interval whose boundary consists of a fixed end-point and a moving one. We put homogeneous Dirichlet condition at the fixed boundary, while we assume that the dynamics of the moving boundary is governed by the Stefan condition. Such free boundary problems have been studied by a lot of researchers. We will take a nonlinear reaction term of positive bistable type which exhibits interesting properties of solutions such as multiple spreading phenomena. In fact, it will be proved that large-time behaviors of solutions can be classified into three types; vanishing, small spreading and big spreading. Some sufficient conditions for these behaviors are also shown. Moreover, for two types of spreading, we will give sharp estimates of spreading speed of each free boundary and asymptotic profiles of each solution.