Well-posedness of a Free Boundary Problem in the Limit of Slow-diffusion Fast-reaction Systems

Well-posedness of a Free Boundary Problem in the Limit of Slow-diffusion Fast-reaction Systems

Year:    2006

Journal of Partial Differential Equations, Vol. 19 (2006), Iss. 1 : pp. 48–79

Abstract

We consider a free boundary problem obtained from the asymptotic limit of a FitzHugh-Nagumo system, or more precisely, a slow-diffusion, fast-reaction equation governing a phase indicator, coupled with an ordinary differential equation governing a control variable ν. In the range (-1, 1), the v value controls the speed of the propagation of phase boundaries (interfaces) and in the mean time changes with dynamics depending on the phases. A new feature included in our formulation and thus made our model different from most of the contemporary ones is the nucleation phenomenon: a phase switch occurs whenever v elevates to 1 or drops to -1. For this free boundary problem, we provide a weak formulation which allows the propagation, annihilation, and nucleation of interfaces, and excludes interfaces from having (space- time) interior points. We study, in the one space dimension setting, the existence, uniqueness, and non-uniqueness of weak solutions. A few illustrating examples are also included.

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Journal Article Details

Publisher Name:    Global Science Press

Language:    English

DOI:    https://doi.org/2006-JPDE-5320

Journal of Partial Differential Equations, Vol. 19 (2006), Iss. 1 : pp. 48–79

Published online:    2006-01

AMS Subject Headings:   

Copyright:    COPYRIGHT: © Global Science Press

Pages:    32

Keywords:    Well-posedness