Pointwise asymptotic behavior of modulated periodic reaction-diffusion waves

Abstract

By working with the periodic resolvent kernel and Bloch-decomposition, we establish pointwise bounds for the Green function of the linearized equation associated with spatially periodic traveling waves of a system of reaction diffusion equations.With our linearized estimates together with a nonlinear iteration scheme developed by Johnson-Zumbrun, we obtain $L^p$- behavior($p \geq 1$) of a nonlinear solution to a perturbation equation of a reaction-diffusion equation with respect to initial data in $L^1 \cap H^1$ recovering and slightly sharpening results obtained by Schneider using weighted energy and renormalization techniques. We obtain also pointwise nonlinear estimates with respect to two different initial perturbations $|u_0|\leq E_0e^{-|x|^2/M}$ and $|u_0| \leq E_0(1+|x|)^{-3/2}$, respectively, $E_0>0$ sufficiently small and $M>1$ sufficiently large, showing that behavior is that of a heat kernel. These pointwise bounds have not been obtained elsewhere, and do not appear to be accessible by previous techniques.