Spreading speeds and spreading sets of reaction-diffusion equations

Abstract: This paper deals with the large time dynamics of bounded solutions of reaction-diffusion equations with unbounded initial support in $\mathbb{R}^N$. We prove a variational formula for the spreading speeds in any direction, and we also describe the asymptotic shape of the level sets of the solutions at large time. The Freidlin-G\"artner type formula for the spreading speeds involves newly introduced notions of bounded and unbounded directions of the initial support. The results hold for a large class of reaction terms and for solutions emanating from initial conditions with general unbounded support, whereas most of earlier results were concerned with more specific reactions and compactly supported or almost-planar initial conditions. We also prove some results of independent interest on some conditions guaranteeing the spreading of solutions with large initial support and the link between these conditions and the existence of traveling fronts with positive speed. The proofs use a mix of ODE and PDE methods, as well as some geometric arguments. The results are sharp and counterexamples are shown when the assumptions are not all fulfilled.