Lie group action and stability analysis of stationary solutions for a free boundary problem modelling tumor growth

In this paper we study asymptotic behavior of solutions for a free boundary problem modelling tumor growth. We first establish a general result for differential equations in Banach spaces possessing a Lie group action which maps a solution into new solutions. We prove that a center manifold exists under certain assumptions on the spectrum of the linearized operator without assuming that the space in which the equation is defined is of either DA(θ) or DA(θ,∞) type. By using this general result and making delicate analysis of the spectrum of the linearization of the stationary free boundary problem, we prove that if the surface tension coefficient γ is larger than a threshold value γ* then the unique stationary solution is asymptotically stable modulo translations, provided the constant c is sufficiently small, whereas if γ<γ* then this stationary solution is unstable.