Applied Math And Analysis Seminar
Monday, April 13, 2009, 4:30pm, 119 Physics
Jim Nolen (Duke University, Department of Mathematics)
Bumps in the road: stability and fluctuations for traveling waves in an inhomogeneous medium
Abstract:
If a partial differential equation has coefficients that vary with respect to the independent (spatial) variables, how do the fluctuations in the coefficients effect the solution? In particular, if these fluctuations have a statistical structure, can anything thing be said about the statistical behavior of the solutions? I'll consider these questions in the context of a scalar reaction diffusion equation. Without the variable coefficients, the equation admits stable traveling wave solutions. It turns out that the stability of wave-like solutions persists in a heterogeneous environment, and this fact can be used to derive a central limit theorem for the wave when the environment has a certain statistical structure.

I'll try to explain two interesting mathematical issues: First, how can one prove stability of the wave-like solution in this general setting, since spectral techniques don't seem applicable? Second, how can one use the structure of the problem to say something about how randomness in the environment effects the solution? [video]


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