Asymptotic stability for a free boundary problem arising in a tumor model

We consider a tumor model in which all cells are proliferating at a rate μ and their density is proportional to the nutrient concentration. The model consists of a coupled system of an elliptic equation and a parabolic equation, with the tumor boundary as a free boundary. It is known that for an appropriate choice of parameters, there exists a unique spherically symmetric stationary solution with radius RS which is independent of μ. It was recently proved that there is a function μ∗(RS) such that the spherical stationary solution is linearly stable if μ<μ∗(RS) and linearly unstable if μ>μ∗(RS). In this paper we prove that the spherical stationary solution is nonlinearly stable (or, asymptotically stable) if μ<μ∗(RS).