On the stochastic correlations in a randomly perturbed chemical front

Velocity fluctuations of stochastic reaction fronts propagating into an unstable state: Strongly pushed fronts

The empirical velocity of a reaction-diffusion front, propagating into an unstable state, fluctuates because of the shot noises of the reactions and diffusion. Under certain conditions these fluctuations can be described as a diffusion process in the reference frame moving with the average velocity of the front. Here we address pushed fronts, where the front velocity in the deterministic limit is affected by higher-order reactions and is therefore larger than the linear spread velocity. For a subclass of these fronts-strongly pushed fronts-the effective diffusion constant D_{f}∼1/N of the front can be calculated, in the leading order, via a perturbation theory in 1/N≪1, where N≫1 is the typical number of particles in the transition region. This perturbation theory, however, overestimates the contribution of a few fast particles in the leading edge of the front. We suggest a more consistent calculation by introducing a spatial integration cutoff at a distance beyond which the average number of particles is of order 1. This leads to a nonperturbative correction to D_{f} which even becomes dominant close to the transition point between the strongly and weakly pushed fronts. At the transition point we obtain a logarithmic correction to the 1/N scaling of D_{f}. We also uncover another, and quite surprising, effect of the fast particles in the leading edge of the front. Because of these particles, the position fluctuations of the front can be described as a diffusion process only on very long time intervals with a duration Δt≫τ_{N}, where τ_{N} scales as N. At intermediate times the position fluctuations of the front are anomalously large and nondiffusive. Our extensive Monte Carlo simulations of a particular reacting lattice gas model support these conclusions.

Asymptotic scaling of the diffusion coefficient of fluctuating "pulled" fronts

We present a (heuristic) theoretical derivation for the scaling of the diffusion coefficient D(f) for fluctuating "pulled" fronts. In agreement with earlier numerical simulations, we find that as N--> infinity, D(f) approaches zero as 1/ln(3) N, where N is the average number of particles per correlation volume in the stable phase of the front. This behavior of D(f) stems from the shape fluctuations at the very tip of the front, and is independent of the microscopic model.

Front dynamics in the presence of spatiotemporal structured noises

Front dynamics modeled by a reaction-diffusion equation are studied under the influence of spatiotemporal structured noises. An effective deterministic model is analytical derived where the noise parameters, intensity, correlation time, and correlation length appear explicitly. The different effects of these parameters are discussed for the Ginzburg-Landau and Schlögl models. We obtain an analytical expression for the front velocity as a function of the noise parameters. Numerical simulation results are in a good agreement with the theoretical predictions.