We extend, to parabolic equations of the KPP type in periodic media, a result of Bramson which asserts that, in the case of a spatially homogeneous reaction rate, the time lag between the position of an initially compactly supported solution and that of a traveling wave grows logarithmically in time.

We construct travelling wave graphs of the form $z=-ct+\phi \left(x\right)$, $\phi :x\in {ℝ}^{N-1}\mapsto \phi \left(x\right)\in ℝ$, $N\ge 2$, solutions to the $N$-dimensional forced mean curvature motion $V_n=-c_0+\kappa$ ($c\ge c_0$) with prescribed asymptotics. For any $1$-homogeneous function ${\phi }_{\infty }$, viscosity solution to the eikonal equation $|D{\phi }_{\infty }|=\sqrt{{(c/c_0)}^2-1}$, we exhibit a smooth concave solution to the forced mean curvature motion whose asymptotics is driven by ${\phi }_{\infty }$. We also describe ${\phi }_{\infty }$ in terms of a probability measure on ${\S }^{N-2}$.

We study a class of bistable reaction-diffusion systems used to model two competing species. Systems in this class possess two uniform stable steady states representing semi-trivial solutions. Principally, we are interested in the case where the ratio of the diffusion coefficients is small, i.e. in the near-degenerate case. First, limiting arguments are presented to relate solutions to such systems to those of the degenerate case where one species...