Gianne Derks is giving a talk in the Analysis and Differential Equations Seminar today (Thursday 2 March) at the University of Bath.  The title of her talk is “Existence and stability of fronts in inhomogeneous wave equations“.  In the talk, wave equations with finite length inhomogeneities are considered. The underlying Hamiltonian structure allows for a rich family of stationary front solutions. It is shown that changes of stability can only occur at critical points of the length of the inhomogeneity as a function of the energy density inside the inhomogeneity. The theory is illustrated with an example related to a Josephson junction system with a finite length inhomogeneity associated with variations in the Josephson tunneling critical current and an application to DNA-RNAP interactions.  Full detailed abstract is available at the above link.