Two-dimensional curved fronts in a periodic shear flow

This paper is devoted to the study of traveling fronts of reaction-diffusion equations with periodic advection in the whole plane R(2). We are interested in curved fronts satisfying some "conical" conditions at infinity. We prove that there is a minimal speed c* such that curved fronts with speed c exist if and only if c >= c*. Moreover, we show that such curved fronts are decreasing in the direction of propagation, that is, they are increasing in time. We also give some results about the asymptotic behaviors of the speed with respect to the advection, diffusion and reaction coefficients. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.