Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-and-applications-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/b/8/solution

At a positive interior maximum, , , and if the point is compared with its past. The PDE instead gives , a contradiction. Thus a positive global/past-strip maximum must come from the spatial boundary or initial-time limit. The far value is positive, so any attained global maximum is positive; the argument does not prohibit a negative local maximum in isolation.
For uniqueness put . It satisfies
The parabolic comparison principle with zero difference data gives and then , hence . As usual on this noncompact singular-time domain, this uses an admissible comparison class in which the initial and far-field limits justify truncation; for example bounded/subquadratic differences on finite past strips with the corresponding uniform zero traces suffice. A barrier controls spatial infinity, since applied to it is nonnegative. The printed fixed-point limits alone should not silently be substituted for all uniform/growth hypotheses of this comparison argument.
Use drift cancellation in a parabolic similarity reduction. For the similarity ansatz, derivative scaling gives
Thus , the drift terms cancel, and with . Use the positive-equilibrium separatrix for a cubic profile equation. Multiply by and use the limiting equilibrium to determine the integration constant:
The branch approaching the positive far equilibrium satisfies ; the constant equilibrium is included as well. Separation gives
For a finite boundary value at and no interior pole, take . Values describe the corresponding coth-type approach from above; is constant, and positive gives the tanh-type branch. The other first-integral sign cannot approach the positive equilibrium nontrivially as .
The requested deficit integral is, after ,
Therefore , and the selected solution is .

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