Linear spreading speeds from nonlinear resonant interaction**GF received support from the project NONLOCAL (ANR-14-CE25-0013) funded by the French National Research Agency. MH was partially supported by the National Science Foundation through grant NSF-DMS-1516155. AS was partially supported by the National Science Foundation through grant NSF-DMS-1311740 and through a DAAD Fellowship.

Abstract

We identify a new mechanism for propagation into unstable states in spatially extended systems, that is based on resonant interaction in the leading edge of invasion fronts. Such resonant invasion speeds can be determined solely based on the complex linear dispersion relation at the unstable equilibrium, but rely on the presence of a nonlinear term that facilitates the resonant coupling. We prove that these resonant speeds give the correct invasion speed in a simple example, we show that fronts with speeds slower than the resonant speed are unstable, and corroborate our speed criterion numerically in a variety of model equations, including a nonlocal scalar neural field model.