Convergence and front position for an FKPP-type free boundary problem

Abstract

The free boundary problem\[ \begin{cases} \partial_tu=\frac{1}{2}\Delta u+u,\quad &t>0, \, x>L_t,\\ u(t,x)=0,\quad &t>0,\, x\le L_t,\\ \int_{L_t}^{\infty}u(t,y)dy=1,\quad &t> 0,\\ u(t,x)dx \to u_0(dx)&\text{weakly as }t\to 0, \end{cases}\] has long been conjectured to be in the universality class of the so-called FKPP reaction-diffusion equation. It appears naturally as the hydrodynamic limit of a branching-selection particle system, the $N$-BBM. In the present work, we show that for any initial condition $u_0(dx)$ that decays fast enough as $x\to\infty$, the solution of the free boundary problem converges to the minimal travelling wave solution. We further show how the decay of the initial condition precisely determines the position of the free boundary $L_t$ at large times $t$, mirroring the celebrated results of Bramson \cite{Bramson1983} in the context of the FKPP equation. Our conditions for convergence to the minimal travelling wave, and for $L_t$ to have the Bramson asymptotics \[ L_t=\sqrt{2}t-\frac{3}{2\sqrt{2}}\log t+c+o(1)\quad\text{as }t\to\infty,\] are necessary and sufficient. We also apply our results to a more general free boundary problem that depends on a parameter $\beta$, where we see a transition from \emph{pulled} to \emph{pushed} behaviour (with \emph{pushmi-pullyu} behaviour at the critical value of $\beta$). We obtain analogous sharp conditions for convergence to the minimal travelling wave, along with precise asymptotics for the front position, in each of these regimes. To our knowledge, such necessary and sufficient conditions had not previously been established in the pushmi-pullyu or pushed regimes, even for classical monostable reaction-diffusion equations. Our results prove and extend non-rigorous predictions in the physics literature of the first author, Brunet and Derrida.