Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-topics-in-applied-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/a/2/c/ii/solution

The explicit travelling wave speed increases with :
Its two tails change differently. Near the leading empty state, with decreasing as grows: that tail lengthens. Near the filled state, , with increasing: that tail becomes steeper. Thus the change is not a uniform sharpening of the whole profile. For example the half-height slope is .
For meaningful comparison, the figure aligns all fronts at by choosing . It displays the speed increase and the unequal changes of the two tails. Since for every , the minimum admissible speed remains two; the explicit family has for . The invariant-triangle proof above extends with boundary derivative .
Figure 1.
Half-height-aligned generalized Fisher fronts and the speed of the explicit front family
. Details.

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