# Untitled Document

Stability of Propagating Fronts

in Damped Hyperbolic Equations

Th. Gallay, G. Raugel Analyse Numérique et EDP CNRS et Université de Paris-Sud F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France Thierry.Gallay@math.u-psud.fr Genevieve.Raugel@math.u-psud.fr

Abstract. – We consider the damped hyperbolic equation

$$\epsilon u_{tt}+u_t=u_{xx}+F(u),x𝐑,t0,u𝐑,$$

where $`\epsilon `$ is a positive, not necessarily small parameter. We assume that $`F(0)=F(1)=0`$ and that $`F`$ is concave on the interval $`[0,1]`$. Under these assumptions, our equation has a continuous family of monotone propagating fronts (or travelling waves) indexed by the speed parameter $`cc_{}`$. Using energy estimates, we first show that the travelling waves are locally stable with respect to perturbations in a weighted Sobolev space. Then, under additional assumptions on the non-linearity, we obtain global stability results using a suitable version of the hyperbolic Maximum Principle. Finally, in the critical case $`c=c_{}`$, we use self-similar variables to compute the exact asymptotic behavior of the perturbations as $`t+\mathrm{}`$. In particular, setting $`\epsilon =0`$, we recover several stability results for the travelling waves of the corresponding parabolic equation.

Keywords : damped hyperbolic equations, travelling waves, stability, asymptotic behavior, self-similar variables

AMS classification codes (1991) : 35B40, 35B35, 35B30, 35L05, 35C20

1. Introduction  Mathematical models for spreading and interacting particles or individuals are very common in chemistry and biology, especially in genetics and population dynamics. If the spatial spread of the particles is described by Brownian motion, these models usually take the form of reaction-diffusion equations or systems for the population densities . Depending on the precise form of the interaction, such systems exhibit interesting solutions like propagating fronts or travelling waves, whose existence and stability properties have attracted a lot of attention in recent years .

It can be argued, however, that diffusion is not a realistic model of spatial spread for short times, because particles performing Brownian motion can move with arbitrarily high speed, and the directions of motion at successive times are uncorrelated. This drawback can be eliminated by replacing the diffusion process with a velocity jump process which is more satisfactory for short times and has equivalent long-time properties . In one space dimension, this procedure leads to damped wave equations instead of reaction-diffusion systems . Under the same assumptions as in the parabolic case, the damped hyperbolic equations also have travelling wave solutions  with analogous stability properties . The aim of this paper is to review some of these stability results in the simplest case of a scalar equation with a non-linearity of “monostable” type.

We thus consider the damped hyperbolic equation

$$\epsilon u_{tt}+u_t=u_{yy}+F(u),$$
$`(1.1)`$   
where $`y𝐑`$, $`t𝐑_+`$ and $`\epsilon `$ is a positive, not necessarily small parameter. We assume that the non-linearity $`F𝒞^2(𝐑,𝐑)`$ has the following properties:

$$F(0)=F(1)=0,F^{}(0)>0,F^{}(1)<0,F^{\prime \prime }(u)<0\text{for }u(0,1].$$
$`(\mathrm{H1})`$   
In particular, $`u1`$ is a stable equilibrium point of Eq.(1.1), and $`u0`$ is unstable. For simplicity, we assume $`F`$ being concave on $`[0,1]`$, but this condition is more restrictive than what we really need and could be relaxed in several ways. A typical non-linearity satisfying (H1) is $`F(u)=uu^m`$, with $`m𝐍`$, $`m2`$.

Under the assumptions (H1), Eq.(1.1) has monotone travelling wave solutions (also called propagating fronts) connecting the equilibrium states $`u=1`$ and $`u=0`$. Indeed, setting

$$u(y,t)=h(\sqrt{1+\epsilon c^2}yct)h(x),$$
$`(1.2)`$   
where $`c>0`$, we obtain for the function $`h`$ the ordinary differential equation

$$h^{\prime \prime }(x)+ch^{}(x)+F(h(x))=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},x𝐑.$$
$`(1.3)`$   
As is well-known , Eq.(1.3) has a solution satisfying $`h^{}(x)<0`$ for all $`x𝐑`$, $`h(\mathrm{})=1`$, $`h(+\mathrm{})=0`$ if and only if $`cc_{}=2\sqrt{F^{}(0)}`$. This solution is unique up to a translation in the variable $`x`$. Therefore, for all $`\epsilon >0`$, Eq.(1.1) has a continuous family of monotone travelling waves indexed by the speed parameter $`cc_{}`$. Note that the actual speed of the wave is not $`c`$, but $`c/\sqrt{1+\epsilon c^2}`$, a quantity which is bounded by $`1/\sqrt{\epsilon }`$ for all $`cc_{}`$.

In the limit $`\epsilon 0`$, Eq.(1.1) reduces to the semilinear parabolic equation $`u_t=u_{yy}+F(u)`$, which has been intensively studied since the pioneering work of Fisher  and Kolmogorov, Petrovskii and Piskunov . Using the parabolic Maximum Principle and probabilistic techniques, the long-time behavior of a large class of solutions has been explicitly determined . In a more general context, a local stability analysis of the travelling waves using functional-analytic methods has been initiated by Sattinger  and extended by many authors . In particular, the decay rate in time of the perturbations in the critical case $`c=c_{}`$ has been computed using renormalization techniques . Since the equilibrium state $`u=0`$ ahead of the front is linearly unstable, all these stability properties are restricted to perturbations which decay to zero at least as fast as $`h`$ itself as $`x+\mathrm{}`$. Following , the aim of this paper is to show how these results can be extended to the hyperbolic case $`\epsilon >0`$.

To investigate the stability of the travelling wave (1.2) as a solution of (1.1), we go to a moving frame using the change of variables

$$u(y,t)=v(\sqrt{1+\epsilon c^2}yct,t)v(x,t),$$

where $`x=\sqrt{1+\epsilon c^2}yct`$. The equation for $`v`$ is

$$\epsilon v_{tt}+v_t2\epsilon cv_{xt}=v_{xx}+cv_x+F(v),$$
$`(1.4)`$   
and, by construction, $`h(x)`$ is a stationary solution of (1.4). Setting $`v(x,t)=h(x)+w(x,t)`$, we obtain for the perturbation $`w`$ the equation

$$\epsilon w_{tt}+w_t2\epsilon cw_{xt}=w_{xx}+cw_x+F^{}(h)w+𝒩(h,w)w^2,$$
$`(1.5)`$   
where

$$𝒩(h,w)=_0^1(1\sigma )F^{\prime \prime }(h+\sigma w)d\sigma .$$

Rewriting in the usual way the second order equation (1.5) as a first order system for the pair $`(w,w_t)`$, we shall study the stability of the origin $`(w,w_t)=(0,0)`$ in an weighted Sobolev space $`Z`$ which we now describe.

For $`k𝐍`$, we denote by $`\mathrm{H}^k=\mathrm{H}^k(𝐑)`$ the usual (real) Sobolev space of order $`k`$ over $`𝐑`$, with $`\mathrm{H}^0(𝐑)=\mathrm{L}^2(𝐑)`$. Following , we introduce for $`s>0`$ the weight function $`p_s(x)=1+\mathrm{e}^{sx}`$ and, for $`k𝐍`$, we denote by $`\mathrm{H}_s^k`$ the Hilbert space $`\mathrm{H}^k(𝐑,p_s^2\mathrm{d}x)`$ defined by the norm

$$u_{\mathrm{H}_s^k}^2=_𝐑\left(\underset{i=0}{\overset{k}{}}|_x^iu(x)|^2\right)p_s(x)^2dx.$$
$`(1.6)`$   
Setting $`\mathrm{L}_s^2=\mathrm{H}_s^0`$, we define the product space $`Z=\mathrm{H}_s^1\times \mathrm{L}_s^2`$ equipped with the norm

$$(w_1,w_2)_Z^2=w_1_{\mathrm{H}_s^1}^2+w_2_{\mathrm{L}_s^2}^2.$$
$`(1.7)`$   
Finally, it will be convenient to denote by $`Z_\epsilon `$ the space $`Z`$ equipped with the $`\epsilon `$-dependent norm

$$(w_1,w_2)_{Z_\epsilon }^2=w_1_{\mathrm{H}_s^1}^2+\epsilon w_2_{\mathrm{L}_s^2}^2.$$
$`(1.8)`$   
The perturbation space $`Z`$ clearly depends on the choice of $`s>0`$ and becomes smaller when $`s`$ increases. It is thus natural to look for the the smallest value of $`s>0`$ for which the origin in (1.5) is linearly stable in $`Z`$. This is most conveniently done by setting $`w(x,t)=\mathrm{e}^{sx}\omega (x,t)`$ and studying the equation for $`\omega `$, namely:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \epsilon \omega _{tt}& +(1+2\epsilon cs)\omega _t2\epsilon c\omega _{xt}=\hfill \\ & \omega _{xx}+(c2s)\omega _x+(F^{}(h)cs+s^2)\omega +𝒩(h,\mathrm{e}^{sx}\omega )\mathrm{e}^{sx}\omega ^2.\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(1.9)`$   
A straightforward computation in the Fourier variables shows that the origin in (1.9) is linearly stable in $`\mathrm{H}^1\times \mathrm{L}^2`$ only if $`F^{}(0)cs+s^20`$. In fact, this condition can easily be inferred from the coefficient of $`\omega `$ in (1.9). Therefore, the largest perturbation space $`Z`$ for which we can expect stability of the front $`h`$ is obtained by choosing

$$s=\frac{1}{2}(c\sqrt{c^2c_{}^2}).$$
$`(1.10)`$   
Note that this value corresponds to the decay rate of $`h`$ as $`x+\mathrm{}`$, since $`h(x)\mathrm{e}^{sx}`$ if $`c>c_{}`$ and $`h(x)x\mathrm{e}^{sx}`$ if $`c=c_{}`$ . Thus, if (1.10) holds, the translations $`h(x+x_0)h(x)`$ do not belong to the perturbation space $`\mathrm{H}_s^1`$. In view of the translation invariance of Eq.(1.1), this is of course necessary to obtain an asymptotic stability result. In the sequel, we always assume that the condition (1.10) holds.

In this paper, we present three different results which show that the travelling wave $`h`$ is stable with respect to perturbations in $`Z_\epsilon `$ or in a subspace of it. In Section 2, we give a local stability result valid for all $`cc_{}`$ and all $`\epsilon >0`$. Using appropriate energy functionals, we show that, if $`(w(0),w_t(0))`$ is sufficiently small in $`Z_\epsilon `$, then the solution $`(w(t),w_t(t))`$ of (1.5) stays in a neighborhood of the origin in $`Z_\epsilon `$ and converges to zero as $`t+\mathrm{}`$ in a slightly weaker norm. In the critical case $`c=c_{}`$, we also give an estimate of the convergence rate. These results have been proved in  in the particular case where $`F(u)=uu^2`$. Their proofs can be adapted, with minor changes, to cover the general case of a non-linearity $`F`$ satisfying (H1).

Section 3 is devoted to global stability results. We first recall the Maximum Principle for hyperbolic equations  in a version adapted to our problem. Then, under the additional assumption that $`F^{}(u)`$ be strictly negative for $`u1`$, we show that the travelling wave $`h`$ is stable with respect to “large” perturbations in $`Z_\epsilon `$, provided some positivity conditions are satisfied. Furthermore, if $`1+4\epsilon F^{}(1)0`$ and $`F^{\prime \prime }(u)0`$ for $`u0`$, we obtain linear upper and lower bounds for the solutions of Eq.(1.5), as well as a decay rate in time for the quantity $`p_sw(t)_\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}}`$. The proofs of these results can also be found in  if $`F(u)=uu^2`$.

In Section 4, we restrict our analysis to the critical case $`c=c_{}`$, and we study the long-time behavior of the solutions $`(w,w_t)`$ of (1.5) in a slightly smaller function space. In particular, we show that

$$w(x,t)=\frac{\alpha }{t^{3/2}}h^{}(x)\phi ^{}\left(\frac{x\sqrt{1+\epsilon c_{}^2}}{\sqrt{t}}\right)+o(t^{3/2}),t+\mathrm{},$$

where $`\alpha 𝐑`$ and $`\phi ^{}:𝐑𝐑`$ is a universal profile. In the parabolic case $`\epsilon =0`$, this asymptotic expansion has been obtained by Gallay  using the renormalization group method  combined with resolvent estimates. We follow here a simpler and fairly different approach based on self-similar variables and energy estimates only. We refer to  for the detailed proof.

To conclude this introduction, we would like to point out the striking similarity between the stability results presented here and the corresponding statements in the parabolic case. This is an illustration of the more general fact that the long-time behavior of solutions to damped hyperbolic equations such as (1.1) is essentially parabolic . A similar phenomenon can be observed in the context of hyperbolic conservation laws with damping .

2. Local Stability of the Travelling Waves  In this section, we show that the travelling wave $`h`$ is stable with respect to sufficiently small perturbations in the space $`Z_\epsilon `$. Our main result is:

Theorem 2.1. Assume that (H1) holds, and let $`\epsilon _0>0`$, $`cc_{}`$. Then there exist constants $`\delta _0>0`$ and $`K_01`$ such that, for all $`0<\epsilon \epsilon _0`$, the following result holds: for all $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)Z_\epsilon `$ such that $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)_{Z_\epsilon }\delta _0`$, there exists a unique solution $`(w,w_t)𝒞^0([0,\mathrm{}),Z_\epsilon )`$ of (1.5) with initial data $`(w(0),w_t(0))=(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$. Moreover, one has

$$(w(t),w_t(t))_{Z_\epsilon }K_0(\phi _0,\phi _1)_{Z_\epsilon },t0,$$
$`(2.1)`$   
and

$$\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}\left(w(t)_{\mathrm{H}^1}+(p_sw(t))_x_{\mathrm{L}^2}+p_sw_t(t)_{\mathrm{L}^2}\right)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},$$
$`(2.2)`$   
where $`p_s(x)=1+\mathrm{e}^{sx}`$ and s is given by (1.10).

Sketch of the proof. We follow the lines of the proof of Theorem 1.1 in . Let

$$𝒩_1(h)=_0^1F^{\prime \prime }(\sigma h)d\sigma ,𝒩_2(h,w)=\frac{1}{2}_0^1(1\sigma )^2F^{\prime \prime }(h+\sigma w)d\sigma .$$

Given $`0<\epsilon \epsilon _0`$ and $`cc_{}`$, we assume that $`(w,w_t)𝒞^0([0,T],Z_\epsilon )`$ is a solution of (1.5) satisfying

$$w(t)_{\mathrm{H}_s^1}\delta ,t[0,T],$$
$`(\mathrm{A1})`$   
for some (sufficiently small) $`\delta >0`$. As in (1.9), we set $`w(x,t)=\mathrm{e}^{sx}\omega (x,t)`$. To control the behavior of $`w`$ on $`[0,T]`$, we introduce two families of energy functionals:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill E_0(t)& =\frac{1}{2}_𝐑\left(\epsilon \omega _t^2+\omega _x^2\omega ^2(h𝒩_1(h)+2w𝒩_2(h,w))\right)dx,\hfill \\ \hfill E_1(t)& =_𝐑\left((\frac{1}{2}+\epsilon cs)\omega ^2+\epsilon \omega \omega _t\right)dx,\hfill \\ \hfill E_2(t)& =\alpha _0E_0(t)+E_1(t),\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`\alpha _0=\mathrm{max}(2\epsilon ,1/(2c^2))`$, and

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill _0(t)& =\frac{1}{2}_𝐑\left(\epsilon w_t^2+w_x^2+s^2w^2w^2(h𝒩_1(h)+2w𝒩_2(h,w))\right)dx,\hfill \\ \hfill _1(t)& =_𝐑\left((\frac{1}{2}\epsilon cs)w^2+\epsilon ww_t\right)dx,\hfill \\ \hfill _2(t)& =\alpha _1_0(t)+_1(t)+\alpha _2(E_0(t)E_2(t))^{1/2},\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`\alpha _1=\mathrm{max}(2\epsilon ,\theta /(2c^2))`$ and $`\theta ,\alpha _2`$ are positive constants. Note that the functionals $`E_i`$, $`_i`$ control the behavior of the perturbation $`w`$ “ahead” and “behind” the front respectively.

Arguing as in \[14, Section 2\], one can show that, if $`\delta `$, $`\theta `$ and $`\alpha _2^1`$ are sufficiently small, then the functions $`E_0`$, $`E_2`$, $`_2`$ are non-negative and satisfy the differential inequalities

$$\begin{array}{cc}& \frac{\mathrm{d}E_0}{\mathrm{d}t}(t)\frac{1}{2}(c^2c_{}^2)E_0(t),\frac{\mathrm{d}E_2}{\mathrm{d}t}(t)+E_0(t)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},\hfill \\ & \frac{\mathrm{d}_2}{\mathrm{d}t}(t)+\alpha _3_2(t)C_1(E_0(t)E_2(t))^{1/2},t[0,T],\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(2.3)`$   
for some $`\alpha _3,C_1>0`$. In addition, there exists a constant $`C_21`$ such that

$$C_2^1(w,w_t)_{Z_\epsilon }^2E_2(t)+_2(t)C_2(w,w_t)_{Z_\epsilon }^2(1+\mathrm{\Psi }(w(t)_\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}})),$$
$`(2.4)`$   
where the function $`\mathrm{\Psi }:𝐑_+𝐑_+`$ is defined by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(K)=\underset{0u1+K}{sup}|F^{}(u)|.$$
$`(2.5)`$   
Combining the estimates Eqs.(2.3), (2.4), we obtain the bound

$$(w(t),w_t(t))_{Z_\epsilon }C_0(w(0),w_t(0))_{Z_\epsilon }(1+\mathrm{\Psi }(w(0)_\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}}))^{1/2},t[0,T],$$
$`(2.6)`$   
where $`C_0`$ is a positive constant depending only on $`\epsilon _0`$, $`c`$ and $`F`$. Since the Cauchy problem for Eq.(1.5) in $`Z_\epsilon `$ is locally well-posed , this proves global existence of the solution $`(w,w_t)`$ provided the right-hand side of (2.6) is smaller than the quantity $`\delta `$ appearing in (A1). Then, the differential inequalities (2.3) imply that $`E_0(t)`$ and $`_2(t)`$ converge to zero as $`t+\mathrm{}`$, thus proving (2.2).         

Remarks.  1) In the critical case $`c=c_{}`$, it follows from (2.3) that $`E_0`$ is non-increasing in time, and that $`tE_0(t)+t^{1/2}_2(t)0`$ as $`t+\mathrm{}`$. In particular, we have

$$\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}\left(t^{1/4}(w(t)_{\mathrm{H}^1}+w_t(t)_{\mathrm{L}^2})+t^{1/2}(\omega _x(t)_{\mathrm{L}^2}+\omega _t(t)_{\mathrm{L}^2})\right)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$
$`(2.7)`$   
This decay rate is not optimal, see Section 4 below.

2) Combining (2.1), (2.2), (2.7), we obtain

$$\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}p_sw(t)_\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\text{if }c>c_{},\text{and}\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}t^{1/4}p_sw(t)_\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\text{if }c=c_{}.$$
$`(2.8)`$   
3) All the estimates in the proof of Theorem 2.1 are uniform in $`\epsilon `$ for $`\epsilon (0,\epsilon _0]`$. In particular, taking the limit $`\epsilon 0`$ everywhere, we obtain a proof of the local stability of the travelling wave $`h`$ for the corresponding parabolic equation.

4) If $`c=c_{}`$, the stability condition $`F^{}(0)cs+s^2=(sc_{}/2)^20`$ implies $`s=c_{}/2`$, hence (1.10) is the only possibility. On the other hand, if $`c>c_{}`$ and $`s`$ is chosen so that $`F^{}(0)cs+s^2<0`$ (in contrast to (1.10)), one can show using the same spectral estimates as in the parabolic case that the origin in (1.5) is exponentially stable in $`Z_\epsilon `$. The fastest decay rate in time for the perturbations is obtained if we set $`s=\widehat{s}(\epsilon )`$, where

$$\widehat{s}(\epsilon )=\frac{c}{2}\sqrt{\frac{1+4\epsilon F^{}(0)}{1+\epsilon c^2}}.$$

3. Global Stability of the Travelling Waves  Throughout this section, we assume that the non-linearity $`F`$ satisfies (H1) and

$$F^{}(u)\mu <0,u1,$$
$`(\mathrm{H2})`$   
for some $`\mu >0`$. Under this additional assumption, it is known in the parabolic case that the front $`h`$ is stable with respect to large perturbations in $`\mathrm{H}_s^1`$ satisfying a positivity condition. This property is a consequence of the classical Maximum Principle for parabolic equations. In this section, we show a similar global stability result for $`\epsilon >0`$ using a hyperbolic Maximum Principle.

Our starting point is the following crucial observation. Let $`0<\epsilon \epsilon _0`$, $`cc_{}`$, $`d(0,1]`$, and assume that $`(w,w_t)𝒞^0([0,T],Z_\epsilon )`$ is a solution of (1.5) satisfying, instead of (A1),

$$w(x,t)(1d)h(x),x𝐑,t[0,T].$$
$`(\mathrm{A2})`$   
In other words, we assume that $`v(x,t)h(x)+w(x,t)dh(x)`$. Then it can be shown (see  in the case $`F(u)=uu^2`$) that the a priori estimates (2.3), (2.4), (2.6) still hold for the solution $`(w,w_t)`$, with constants $`C_0,C_1,C_2`$ depending only on $`\epsilon _0`$, $`c`$, $`d`$ and $`F`$. Thus, we can remove the smallness condition (A1) in the proof of Theorem 2.1 provided we are able to show that the positivity condition (A2) is satisfied for all times. This in turn can be obtained from the Maximum Principle under appropriate assumptions on the initial data.

3.1. The Hyperbolic Maximum Principle  Motivated by (1.4) or (1.5), we consider the hyperbolic operator $`L`$ with constant coefficients

$$Lu=u_{xx}+2\epsilon cu_{xt}\epsilon u_{tt}+cu_xu_t.$$
$`(3.1)`$   
Assume that $`\mathrm{}:𝐑\times [0,T]𝐑`$ is a continuous function such that

$$\mathrm{}(x,t)\underset{¯}{\mathrm{}},x𝐑,t[0,T],$$
$`(3.2)`$   
where $`T`$ is a positive number and $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{}}𝐑`$ satisfies

$$1+4\epsilon \underset{¯}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$
$`(3.3)`$   
The following result is a consequence of the Maximum Principle given by Protter and Weinberger (see \[29, Chapter 4, Theorem 1\] or \[14, Appendix A, Theorem A.1\]).

Theorem 3.1. Let $`\epsilon >0`$, $`c>0`$, and assume that the conditions (3.2) and (3.3) are satisfied. If $`(u(x,t),u_t(x,t))`$ belongs to $`𝒞^0([0,T],H_{\mathrm{loc}}^1(𝐑)\times L_{\mathrm{loc}}^2(𝐑))`$, with $`u_{xx}+2\epsilon cu_{xt}\epsilon u_{tt}`$ in $`L_{\mathrm{loc}}^2(𝐑\times (0,T))`$, and if

$$\left(L+\mathrm{}(x,t)\right)u(x,t)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},a.e.(x,t)𝐑\times [0,T],$$
$`(3.4)`$   
$$u(x,0)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},x𝐑,$$
$`(3.5)`$   
$$\epsilon u_t(x,0)\epsilon cu_x(x,0)+\frac{1}{2}u(x,0)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},a.e.\text{ in }𝐑,$$
$`(3.6)`$   
then $`u(x,t)0`$ for all $`(x,t)𝐑\times [0,T]`$.

As an application, we define for $`d[0,1]`$, $`K0`$ the function

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_d(K)=inf\left\{\frac{F(v)F(u)}{vu}\right|\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}ud,u<v1+K\}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$
$`(3.7)`$   
We have the following result:

Proposition 3.2. Assume that (H1), (H2) hold. Let $`\epsilon >0`$, $`cc_{}`$, $`d[0,1]`$ and let $`K`$ be a non-negative constant such that

$$1+4\epsilon \mathrm{\Lambda }_d(K)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$
$`(3.8)`$   
For some $`T>0`$, assume that $`(w,w_t)𝒞^0([0,T],Z_\epsilon )`$ is a solution of (1.5) with initial data $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$ satisfying

$$\phi _0(x)(1d)h(x),x𝐑,$$
$`(3.9)`$   
$$\epsilon \phi _1(x)\epsilon c(\phi _0^{}(x)+(1d)h^{}(x))\frac{1}{2}(\phi _0(x)+(1d)h(x)),a.e.\text{ in }𝐑.$$
$`(3.10)`$   
Suppose moreover that

$$w(x,t)K,(x,t)𝐑\times [0,T].$$
$`(3.11)`$   
Then

$$w(x,t)(1d)h(x),(x,t)𝐑\times [0,T].$$
$`(3.12)`$   
Proof. Without loss of generality, we may assume that $`F^{}(u)0`$ for all $`u0`$. Let $`u(x,t)=dh(x)v(x,t)`$, where $`v(x,t)=h(x)+w(x,t)`$. Since $`v(x,t)`$ is a solution of (1.4), it is straightforward to verify that $`(L+\mathrm{})u(x,t)=F(dh(x))dF(h(x))`$, where $`L`$ is defined in (3.1) and

$$\mathrm{}(x,t)=\frac{F(v(x,t))F(dh(x))}{v(x,t)dh(x)}.$$

In view of (H1), one has $`F(dh(x))dF(h(x))0`$ for all $`x𝐑`$. Furthermore, since $`v(x,t)1+K`$ by (3.11), we have $`\mathrm{}(x,t)\underset{¯}{\mathrm{}}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_d(K)`$. Indeed, this inequality follows immediately from (3.7) if $`v(x,t)dh(x)`$; in the converse case, we observe that $`\mathrm{}(x,t)\mathrm{min}(F^{}(dh(x)),0)\mathrm{\Lambda }_d(K)`$. Thus (3.8) implies (3.3), and the conditions (3.9), (3.10) are nothing else as the hypotheses (3.5) and (3.6). Therefore Theorem 3.1 shows that $`u(x,t)=dh(x)v(x,t)0`$ for all $`(x,t)𝐑\times [0,T]`$, which is (3.12).         

Remark. Theorem 3.1 suggests the definition of a partial order in $`H_{\mathrm{loc}}^1(𝐑)\times L_{\mathrm{loc}}^2(𝐑)`$ as follows. We say that $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)(\psi _0,\psi _1)`$ if

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \phi _0(x)& \psi _0(x),x𝐑,\hfill \\ \hfill \epsilon \phi _1(x)\epsilon c\phi _0^{}(x)+\frac{1}{2}\phi _0(x)& \epsilon \psi _1(x)\epsilon c\psi _0^{}(x)+\frac{1}{2}\psi _0(x)a.e.\text{ in }𝐑,\hfill \end{array}$$

see (3.5), (3.6). Then, if $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)(\psi _0,\psi _1)`$, the solution of the linear hyperbolic equation $`(L+\mathrm{})u(x,t)=0`$ satisfying $`u(x,0)=\phi _0(x)`$, $`u_t(x,0)=\phi _1(x)`$ stays for all $`t𝐑_+`$ below the solution of the same equation with initial data $`(\psi _0,\psi _1)`$. This order has the property that we can write any $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)H_{\mathrm{loc}}^1\times L_{\mathrm{loc}}^2`$ as the sum of a “positive” part $`(\phi _0^+,\phi _1^+)0`$ and a “negative” part $`(\phi _0^{},\phi _1^{})0`$. This decomposition is unique if we impose that $`(\phi _0^+,\phi _1^+)=0`$ whenever $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)0`$ and $`(\phi _0^{},\phi _1^{})=0`$ whenever $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)0`$. The formulas for $`(\phi _0^\pm ,\phi _1^\pm )`$ are given by

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \phi _0^+(x)& =sup(0,\phi _0(x)),\hfill \\ \hfill \phi _1^+(x)& =c(\phi _0^+)^{}(x)\frac{1}{2\epsilon }\phi _0^+(x)+sup(0,(\phi _1c\phi _0^{}+\frac{1}{2\epsilon }\phi _0)(x)),\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(3.13)`$   
and

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \phi _0^{}(x)& =inf(0,\phi _0(x)),\hfill \\ \hfill \phi _1^{}(x)& =c(\phi _0^{})^{}(x)\frac{1}{2\epsilon }\phi _0^{}(x)+inf(0,(\phi _1c\phi _0^{}+\frac{1}{2\epsilon }\phi _0)(x)).\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(3.14)`$   
Remark that, if $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)Z_\epsilon `$, then $`(\phi _0^\pm ,\phi _1^\pm )Z_\epsilon `$. Moreover, it can be verified that $`|\phi _1^\pm (x)||\phi _1(x)|+c|\phi _0^{}(x)|`$ a.e. in $`𝐑`$.

3.2. A General Global Stability Result  Combining the a priori estimates of Section 2 and the Maximum Principle, we are now able to state and prove our main stability result:

Theorem 3.3. Assume that (H1), (H2) hold, and let $`\epsilon _0>0`$, $`cc_{}`$, $`d(0,1]`$. There exists a constant $`C_01`$ such that, for all $`0<\epsilon \epsilon _0`$ and all $`K>0`$ satisfying

$$1+4\epsilon \mathrm{\Lambda }_d(K)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},$$
$`(3.15)`$   
the following result holds: If $`K_{}>0`$ is such that

$$C_0K_{}(1+\mathrm{\Psi }(K_{}))^{1/2}<K,$$
$`(3.16)`$   
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is defined in (2.5), then for any $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)Z_\epsilon `$ satisfying the inequalities (3.9), (3.10) and the bound $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)_{Z_\epsilon }K_{}`$, there exists a unique solution $`(w,w_t)𝒞^0([0,\mathrm{}),Z_\epsilon )`$ of (1.5) with initial data $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$. Moreover, one has

$$(w(t),w_t(t))_{Z_\epsilon }K,w(x,t)(1d)h(x),$$
$`(3.17)`$   
for all $`x𝐑`$, $`t𝐑_+`$, and (2.2), (2.7) hold.

Remark. The constant $`C_0`$ in (3.16) is the same as in (2.6).

Sketch of the proof. By Proposition 3.2, the solution $`(w,w_t)`$ with initial data $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$ satisfies $`w(x,t)(1d)h(x)`$ as long as $`w(x,t)K`$. On the other hand, in view of (3.16), the a priori estimate (2.6) implies that $`w(x,t)(w(t),w_t(t))_{Z_\epsilon }<K`$ as long as $`w(x,t)(1d)h(x)`$. Combining these facts and using a contradiction argument, we show that the solution is globally defined and satisfies (3.17) for all times. The differential inequalities (2.3) then imply (2.2), (2.7).         

Remarks.  1) The relations (3.15), (3.16) imply that $`K`$ (hence $`K_{}`$) can be chosen very big if $`\epsilon `$ is sufficiently small. In this case, Theorem 3.3 shows that the travelling wave $`h`$ is stable with respect to large perturbations, provided the positivity conditions (3.9), (3.10) are satisfied. Conversely, if $`\epsilon `$ is large, then $`K`$ (hence $`K_{}`$) has to be very small, and Theorem 3.3 reduces to a local stability result similar to Theorem 2.1.

2) As a simple example, consider the non-linearity $`F(u)=uu^2`$  which satisfies (H1), (H2). Then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_d(K)=(d+K)`$, and the condition (3.15) reads $`14\epsilon (d+K)0`$. Also $`\mathrm{\Psi }(K)=1+2K`$, hence the hypothesis $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)_{Z_\epsilon }K_{}`$ can be replaced by

$$(\phi _0,\phi _1)_{Z_\epsilon }CK(1+K)^{1/3},$$

where $`C`$ is a sufficiently large positive constant.

3.3. Further Stability Results if $`1+4\epsilon F^{}(1)0`$  The previous results are still incomplete for at least two reasons. First, if $`c>c_{}`$, they fail to give a decay rate of the perturbations as $`t+\mathrm{}`$, see (2.8). Next, they do not provide any global existence result if $`d=0`$, that is if $`v(x,0)0`$. Assuming that the non-linearity $`F`$ satisfies the stronger assumption

$$F^{\prime \prime }(u)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},u\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},$$
$`(\mathrm{H3})`$   
we can give a partial answer to both questions when $`1+4\epsilon F^{}(1)0`$. Indeed, in this case, the Maximum Principle allows us to compare the solution $`w(x,t)`$ of (1.5) with solutions of the linear equations

$$\epsilon \stackrel{~}{w}_{tt}+\stackrel{~}{w}_t2\epsilon c\stackrel{~}{w}_{xt}=\stackrel{~}{w}_{xx}+c\stackrel{~}{w}_x+F^{}(h)\stackrel{~}{w},$$
$`(3.18)`$   
and

$$\epsilon \stackrel{~}{w}_{tt}+\stackrel{~}{w}_t2\epsilon c\stackrel{~}{w}_{xt}=\stackrel{~}{w}_{xx}+c\stackrel{~}{w}_x+F^{}(0)\stackrel{~}{w}.$$
$`(3.19)`$   
We denote by $`(\stackrel{~}{w}(t),\stackrel{~}{w}_t(t))`$ the solution of (3.18) with initial data $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$, and by $`(\stackrel{~}{w}^\pm (t),\stackrel{~}{w}_t^\pm (t))`$ the solution of (3.19) with initial data $`(\phi _0^\pm ,\phi _1^\pm )`$, the “positive” and “negative” parts of $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$ defined in (3.13), (3.14). Following the arguments in \[14, Section 4\], we obtain our last stability result:

Theorem 3.4. Assume that (H1), (H3) hold and that $`1+4\epsilon F^{}(1)0`$. Given $`cc_{}`$, $`d[0,1]`$, there exists a constant $`C_3(c)1`$ such that, for all $`K0`$ satisfying

$$1+4\epsilon \mathrm{\Lambda }_1(K)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},$$

the following result holds: for any $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)Z_\epsilon `$ satisfying (3.9), (3.10) and

$$inf((\phi _0,\phi _1)_{Z_\epsilon },(\phi _0^+,\phi _1^+)_{Z_\epsilon })\frac{K}{C_3(c)},$$

there exists a unique solution $`(w,w_t)𝒞^0([0,\mathrm{}),Z_\epsilon )`$ of (1.5) with initial data $`(\phi _0,\phi _1)`$. Moreover, we have

$$(1d)h(x)w(x,t)K,$$
$`(3.20)`$   
and

$$\stackrel{~}{w}^{}(x,t)w(x,t)\stackrel{~}{w}(x,t)\stackrel{~}{w}^+(x,t),$$

for all $`x𝐑`$, $`t𝐑_+`$. Finally, if $`d>0`$ and $`14\epsilon F^{}(0)>0`$, one has

$$\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}t^{1/4}\left(p_sw(t)_\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}}+w(t)_{\mathrm{H}^1}+w_t(t)_{\mathrm{L}^2}\right)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.$$

Remark. If $`(\phi _0^+,\phi _1^+)=0`$, i.e. if the initial data are non-positive, then (3.20) with $`K=0`$ shows that the solution $`w(x,t)`$ remains non-positive for all times.

4. Asymptotic Expansions in the Critical Case $`c=c_{}`$  In this section, we restrict ourselves to the critical case $`c=c_{}`$, and we consider perturbations of the travelling wave $`h`$ in a strict subspace of $`Z_\epsilon `$. Using self-similar variables and energy estimates, we are able to compute explicitly the long-time asymptotics of the perturbations as $`t+\mathrm{}`$. In particular, we recover the results obtained by Gallay  in the parabolic case $`\epsilon =0`$.

Following Kirchgässner , we consider solutions of (1.4) of the following form

$$v(x,t)=h(x)+h^{}(x)W(x,\frac{t}{1+\epsilon c_{}^2}),$$

i.e. we set $`w(x,t)=h^{}(x)W(x,t/(1+\epsilon c_{}^2))`$. Then $`W`$ satisfies the equation

$$\eta W_{tt}+(1\nu \gamma (x))W_t2\nu W_{xt}=W_{xx}+\gamma (x)W_x+h^{}(x)W^2𝒩(h(x),h^{}(x)W),$$
$`(4.1)`$   
where

$$\eta =\frac{\epsilon }{(1+\epsilon c_{}^2)^2},\nu =\frac{\epsilon c_{}}{1+\epsilon c_{}^2},\gamma (x)=c_{}+2\frac{h^{\prime \prime }(x)}{h^{}(x)},x𝐑.$$

In (4.1) and in the sequel, the second argument of the function $`W`$ is simply denoted by $`t`$, instead of $`t/(1+\epsilon c_{}^2)`$.

From  we know that the travelling wave $`h`$ (with $`c=c_{}`$) satisfies

$$h(x)=\{\begin{array}{cc}1+𝒪(\mathrm{e}^{\beta x})\hfill & \text{as }x\mathrm{}\text{ ,}\hfill \\ (a_1x+a_2)\mathrm{e}^{c_{}x/2}+𝒪(x^2\mathrm{e}^{c_{}x})\hfill & \text{as }x+\mathrm{}\text{ ,}\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`a_1>0`$, $`a_2𝐑`$, and $`\beta =\frac{1}{2}(c_{}+\sqrt{c_{}^24F^{}(1)})>0`$. Similar asymptotic expansions hold for the derivatives $`h^{}`$, $`h^{\prime \prime }`$, hence

$$\gamma (x)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\gamma _{}+𝒪(\mathrm{e}^{\beta x})\hfill & \text{as }x\mathrm{}\text{ ,}\hfill \\ 2/(x+x_0)+𝒪(x\mathrm{e}^{c_{}x/2})\hfill & \text{as }x+\mathrm{}\text{ ,}\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(4.2)`$   
where $`\gamma _{}=c_{}+2\beta =2\sqrt{F^{}(0)F^{}(1)}`$ and $`x_0=(a_2/a_12/c_{})`$. The hypothesis (H1) on $`F`$ also implies that $`\gamma ^{}(x)<0`$ for all $`x𝐑`$.

To study the long-time behavior of the solution $`W`$ of (4.1), we use the scaling variables or self-similar variables defined by

$$\xi =\frac{x}{\sqrt{t+t_0}},\tau =\mathrm{log}(t+t_0),$$

for some $`t_0>0`$. These variables have been widely used to study the long time behavior of solutions to parabolic equations, in particular to prove convergence to self-similar solutions . In , it has been shown by the authors that these variables are also a powerful tool in the framework of damped hyperbolic equations. Following , we define the rescaled functions $`U`$ and $`V`$ by

$$U(\xi ,\tau )=\mathrm{e}^{3\tau /2}W(\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2},\mathrm{e}^\tau t_0),V(\xi ,\tau )=\mathrm{e}^{5\tau /2}W_t(\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2},\mathrm{e}^\tau t_0),$$
$`(4.3)`$   
or equivalently

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill W(x,t)& =\frac{1}{(t+t_0)^{3/2}}U(\frac{x}{\sqrt{t+t_0}},\mathrm{log}(t+t_0)),\hfill \\ \hfill W_t(x,t)& =\frac{1}{(t+t_0)^{5/2}}V(\frac{x}{\sqrt{t+t_0}},\mathrm{log}(t+t_0)).\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(4.4)`$   
Then $`U(\xi ,\tau ),V(\xi ,\tau )`$ satisfy the system

$$\begin{array}{cc}& U_\tau \frac{\xi }{2}U_\xi \frac{3}{2}U=V,\hfill \\ & \eta \mathrm{e}^\tau \left(V_\tau \frac{\xi }{2}V_\xi \frac{5}{2}V\right)+(1\nu \gamma (\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}))V2\nu \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}V_\xi =\hfill \\ & U_{\xi \xi }+\mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}\gamma (\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2})U_\xi +\mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}h^{}(\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2})U^2N(\xi ,\tau ),\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(4.5)`$   
where $`N(\xi ,\tau )=𝒩(h(\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}),\mathrm{e}^{3\tau /2}h^{}(\xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2})U)`$.

We now introduce function spaces for the rescaled perturbations $`U,V`$. For $`\tau 0`$, we denote by $`𝒳_\tau ,𝒴_\tau `$ the Hilbert spaces of measurable functions on $`𝐑`$ defined by the norms

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill V_{𝒴_\tau }^2& =_{\mathrm{}}^0\mathrm{e}^{2\beta \xi \mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}}|V(\xi )|^2d\xi +_0^+\mathrm{}(1+\xi ^6)|V(\xi )|^2d\xi ,\hfill \\ \hfill U_{𝒳_\tau }^2& =U_{𝒴_\tau }^2+U_\xi _{𝒴_\tau }^2.\hfill \end{array}$$

We denote by $`𝒵_\tau `$ the product space $`𝒵_\tau =𝒳_\tau \times 𝒴_\tau `$ equipped with the standard norm

$$(U,V)_{𝒵_\tau }^2=U_{𝒳_\tau }^2+V_{𝒴_\tau }^2.$$

As is easily verified, if the functions $`(U,V)`$ and $`(W,W_t)`$ are related through (4.3) or (4.4), then $`(U(,\tau ),V(,\tau ))𝒵_\tau `$ if and only if the actual perturbation $`w(x,t)=h^{}(x)W(x,t/(1+\epsilon c_{}^2))`$ satisfies

$$_{\mathrm{}}^0(w^2+w_x^2+w_t^2)(x,t)dx+_0^{\mathrm{}}(1+x^4)\mathrm{e}^{c_{}x}(w^2+w_x^2+w_t^2)(x,t)dx<\mathrm{}.$$
$`(4.6)`$   
Therefore, the perturbation space considered in this section is slightly smaller than the space $`Z`$ defined in (1.7), due to the factor $`(1+x^4)`$ in (4.6).

Before stating the main result of this section, we explain its content in a heuristic way. Taking formally the limit $`\tau +\mathrm{}`$ in (4.5) and using (4.2), we see that $`U`$ satisfies the linear parabolic equation

$$U_\tau =_{\mathrm{}}U\stackrel{\text{def}}{=}U_{\xi \xi }+\left(\frac{\xi }{2}+\frac{2}{\xi }\right)U_\xi +\frac{3}{2}U\text{if }\xi >0,U_\xi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\text{if }\xi 0.$$
$`(4.7)`$   
Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the long-time behavior of the solutions to (4.5) will be determined by the spectral properties of the operator $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ on $`𝐑_+`$, with Neumann boundary condition at $`\xi =0`$. Now, as is easily verified, this limiting operator is just the image under the scaling (4.4) of the radially symmetric Laplacian operator in three dimensions. Indeed, if $`U`$ and $`W`$ are related through (4.4), the equation $`U_\tau =_{\mathrm{}}U`$ is equivalent to $`W_t=W_{xx}+(2/x)W_x`$, $`x>0`$. This crucial observation allows to compute exactly the spectrum of $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ in various function spaces, see . For instance, in the space $`\mathrm{L}^2(𝐑_+,(1+\xi ^6)\mathrm{d}\xi )`$, the spectrum of $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ consists of a simple, isolated eigenvalue at $`\lambda =0`$, and of “continuous” spectrum filling the half-plane $`\{\lambda 𝐂|\mathrm{Re}\lambda 1/4\}`$. The eigenfunction corresponding to $`\lambda =0`$ is the gaussian $`\mathrm{e}^{\xi ^2/4}`$. Therefore, we expect that the solution $`U(\xi ,\tau )`$ of (4.5) converges as $`\tau +\mathrm{}`$ to $`\alpha \phi ^{}(\xi )`$ for some $`\alpha 𝐑`$, where

$$\phi ^{}(\xi )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi }}\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & \text{if }\xi <0\text{ ,}\hfill \\ \mathrm{e}^{\xi ^2/4}\hfill & \text{if }\xi 0\text{ .}\hfill \end{array}$$

This function is normalized so that $`_0^{\mathrm{}}\xi ^2\phi ^{}(\xi )d\xi =1`$. Since $`V=U_\tau \frac{\xi }{2}U_\xi \frac{3}{2}U`$, we also expect that $`V(\xi ,\tau )\alpha \psi ^{}(\xi )`$, where $`\psi ^{}=\frac{\xi }{2}\phi _\xi ^{}\frac{3}{2}\phi ^{}`$. It is crucial to note that Eq.(4.7) is independent of $`\epsilon `$: this explains why the solutions of (4.1), hence of (1.1), behave for large times in a similar way to those of the corresponding parabolic equations.

Our last result shows that the heuristic arguments above are indeed correct:

Theorem 4.1. Assume that (H1) holds, and let $`\epsilon >0`$, $`c=c_{}`$. There exist $`\tau _0>0`$ and $`\delta _0>0`$ such that, for all $`(U_0,V_0)𝒵_{\tau _0}`$ satisfying $`(U_0,V_0)_{𝒵_{\tau _0}}\delta _0`$, the system (4.5) has a unique solution $`(U,V)𝒞^0([\tau _0,+\mathrm{}),𝒵_\tau )`$ with $`(U(\tau _0),V(\tau _0))=(U_0,V_0)`$. In addition, there exists $`\alpha ^{}𝐑`$ such that

$$U(\tau )\alpha ^{}\phi ^{}_{𝒳_\tau }^2+_{\tau _0}^\tau \mathrm{e}^{(\tau \sigma )/2}V(\sigma )\alpha ^{}\psi ^{}_{𝒴_\sigma }^2d\sigma =𝒪(\tau ^2\mathrm{e}^{\tau /2}),$$

as $`\tau +\mathrm{}`$.

Remark. We say that $`(U,V)𝒞^0([\tau _0,+\mathrm{}),𝒵_\tau )`$ is a solution of the system (4.5) if there exists a solution $`(W,W_t)𝒞^0([0,+\mathrm{}),𝒵_0)`$ of (4.1) such that (4.3), (4.4) hold, with $`t_0=\mathrm{e}^{\tau _0}`$.

In terms of the original variables, Theorem 4.1 implies that 

$$\underset{x𝐑}{sup}\left(1+\frac{\mathrm{e}^{c_{}x/2}}{1+|x|}\right)\left|w(x,t)\frac{\alpha }{t^{3/2}}h^{}(x)\phi ^{}\left(\frac{x\sqrt{1+\epsilon c_{}^2}}{\sqrt{t}}\right)\right|=𝒪(t^{7/4}\mathrm{log}t),$$

as $`t+\mathrm{}`$, where $`\alpha =\alpha ^{}(1+\epsilon c_{}^2)^{3/2}`$, $`w(x,t)=h^{}(x)W(x,t/(1+\epsilon c_{}^2))`$ and $`W`$ is given by (4.4). In the parabolic case $`\epsilon =0`$, this result has been obtained in  using slightly different function spaces. Remarkably enough, the asymptotic profile $`\phi ^{}`$ is universal: it does not depend on the initial data, nor on the parameter $`\epsilon 0`$, nor on the precise form of the non-linearity $`F`$.

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