We study the initial value problem of the thermal-diffusive combustion systemu 1, t= u 1, x, x u 1 u 2 2, u 2, t= du 2, xx+ u 1 u 2 2, x R 1, for non-negative spatially decaying initial data of arbitrary size and for any positive constantd. We show that if the initial data decay to zero sufficiently fast at infinity, then the solution (u 1, u 2) converges to a self-similar solution of the reduced systemu 1, t= u 1, xx u 1 u 2 2, u 2, t= du 2, xx, in the large time limit. In particular, u 1 decays to zero like O (t 1/2 ), where> 0 is an anomalous exponent depending on the initial data, andu 2 decays to zero with normal rate O (t 1/2). The idea of the proof is to combine the a priori estimates for the decay of global solutions with the renormalization group method for establishing the self-similarity of the solutions in the large time limit.

Light bullets are spatially localized ultra-short optical pulses in more than one space dimensions. They contain only a few electromagnetic oscillations under their envelopes and propagate long distances without essentially changing shapes. Light bullets of femtosecond durations have been observed in recent numerical simulation of the full Maxwell systems. The sineGordon (SG) equation comes as an asymptotic reduction of the two level dissipationless MaxwellBloch system. We derive a new and complete nonlinear Schrdinger (NLS) equation in two space dimensions for the SG pulse envelopes so that it is globally well-posed and has all the relevant higher order terms to regularize the collapse of the standard critical NLS (CNLS). We perform a modulation analysis and found that SG pulse envelopes undergo focusingdefocusing cycles. Numerical results are in qualitative agreement with asymptotics and

We prove the existence of reaction-diffusion traveling fronts in mean zero space-time periodic shear flows for nonnegative reactions including the classical KPP (Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov) nonlinearity. For the KPP nonlinearity, the minimal front speed is characterized by a variational principle involving the principal eigenvalue of a space-time periodic parabolic operator. Analysis of the variational principle shows that adding a mean-zero space time periodic shear flow to an existing mean zero space-periodic shear flow leads to speed enhancement. Computation of KPP minimal speeds is performed based on the variational principle and a spectrally accurate discretization of the principal eigenvalue problem. It shows that the enhancement is monotone decreasing in temporal shear frequency, and that the total enhancement from pure reaction-diffusion obeys quadratic and linear laws at small and large shear amplitudes.

The nonlinear Schrdinger equation (NLS) has been a fundamental model for understanding vortex motion in superfluids. The vortex motion law has been formally derived on various physical grounds and has been around for almost half a century. We study the nonlinear Schrdinger equation in the incompressible fluid limit on a bounded domain with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary condition. The initial condition contains any finite number of degree 1 vortices. We prove that the NLS linear momentum weakly converges to a solution of the incompressible Euler equation away from the vortices. If the initial NLS energy is almost minimizing, we show that the vortex motion obeys the classical Kirchhoff law for fluid point vortices. Similar results hold for the entire plane and periodic cases, and a related complex GinzburgLandau equation. We treat as well the semi-classical (WKB) limit of NLS in the presence of

We review the existence results of traveling wave solutions to the reaction-diffusion equations with periodic diffusion (convection) coefficients and combustion (bistable) nonlinearities. We prove that whenever traveling waves exist, the solutions of the initial value problem with either frontlike or pulselike data propagate with the constant effective speeds of traveling waves in all suitable directions. In the case of bistable nonlinearity and one space dimension, we give an example of nonexistence of traveling waves which causes quenching (localization) of wavefront propagation. Quenching (localization) only occurs when the variations of the media from their constant mean values are large enough. Our related numerical results also provide evidence for this phenomenon in the parameter regimes not covered by the analytical example. Finally, we comment on the role of the effective wave speeds in