Variational Characterization of the Speed of Reaction Diffusion Fronts for Gradient Dependent Diffusion

We study the asymptotic speed of traveling fronts of the scalar reaction diffusion for positive reaction terms and with a diffusion coefficient depending nonlinearly on the concentration and on its gradient. We restrict our study to diffusion coefficients of the form $$D(u,u_x) = m u^{m-1} u_x^{m(p-2)}$$D(u,ux)=mum-1uxm(p-2) for which existence and convergence to traveling fronts have been established. We formulate a variational principle for the asymptotic speed of the fronts. Upper and lower bounds for the speed valid for any $$m\ge 0, p\ge 1$$m≥0,p≥1 are constructed. When $$m=1, p=2$$m=1,p=2, the problem reduces to the constant diffusion problem and the bounds correspond to the classic Zeldovich–Frank-Kamenetskii lower bound and the Aronson–Weinberger upper bound, respectively. In the special case $$m(p-1) = 1$$m(p-1)=1, a local lower bound can be constructed which coincides with the aforementioned upper bound. The speed in this case is completely determined in agreement with recent results.