Sharp dimension threshold for unique FKPP steady states and BBM recurrence

Source abstract

We consider the existence and uniqueness of positive, bounded stationary solutions of the Fisher-KPP equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We establish that stationary solutions are unique, and exist if and only if the generalised principal eigenvalue is strictly positive (supercriticality), in dimension at most $6$. This is sharp: we exhibit examples both of non-uniqueness and of existence at criticality in dimension $7$ or higher, including for the classical reaction $f(u)=u-u^2$. This proves a conjecture of Berestycki and Graham in the affirmative for dimension at most $6$, and in the negative for dimension at least $7$. We thereby show that branching Brownian motion cannot survive globally without surviving locally in dimension $6$ or lower, but can do so in dimension $7$ or higher, mirroring the classical transition of Brownian motion from recurrence to transience from dimension $2$ to $3$. We further show that relaxing the strong-KPP condition results in a more general sharp dimension threshold for the uniqueness/non-existence result. These results are valid without any regularity assumptions on the domain boundary. As a corollary, we show that solutions of the evolution reaction-diffusion equation are always convergent in the long run in dimension at most $6$, whilst we exhibit non-convergent solutions in dimension larger than $6$.