Time Delay of KPP Fronts Across a Semipermeable Barrier

Abstract

We study a KPP reaction--diffusion equation on the real line with a semipermeable barrier at the origin, where the flux is continuous and the density jump is proportional to the spatial derivative. With diffusion and linear growth normalized to one, let $β$ denote the barrier resistance. For initial data equal to one sufficiently far to the left and zero near the barrier and on the receiving side, we prove convergence on the receiving side to a minimal-speed wave with a unique phase in the Bramson frame. The difference between distant first-arrival times with and without the barrier therefore has a finite limit $τ_β$, independent of the arrival level and continuous in $β$. For concave KPP reactions, this delay is strictly increasing in $β$ and satisfies $τ_β=Kβ+o(β)$ as $β\downarrow0$, with $K>1/4$. Without the concavity assumption, the strong-barrier expansion is $τ_β=\frac12\logβ-\frac12\log\logβ+C+o(1)$, where $C$ is determined by the homogeneous reference amplitude and the closed donor-side Neumann evolution. The analysis relates the sustained interface input to the front phase through leading-edge estimates, interior matching, and parameter-uniform moment bounds.