Travelling wave fronts in reaction-diffusion systems with spatio-temporal delays

This paper deals with the existence of travelling wave fronts in reaction-diffusion systems with spatio-temporal delays. Our approach is to use monotone iterations and a nonstandard ordering for the set of profiles of the corresponding wave system. New iterative techniques are established for a class of integral operators when the reaction term satisfies different monotonicity conditions. Following this, the existence of travelling wave fronts for reaction-diffusion systems with spatio-temporal delays is established. Finally, we apply the main results to a single-species diffusive model with spatio-temporal delay and obtain some existence criteria of travelling wave fronts by choosing different kernels.     

Traveling wavefronts for time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation: (I) Local nonlinearity

In this paper, we study a class of time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation with local nonlinearity for the birth rate. For all wavefronts with the speed c>c_∗, where c_∗>0 is the critical wave speed, we prove that these wavefronts are asymptotically stable, when the initial perturbation around the traveling waves decays exponentially as x→−∞, but the initial perturbation can be arbitrarily large in other locations. This essentially improves the stability results obtained by Mei, So, Li and Shen [M. Mei, J.W.-H. So, M.Y. Li, S.S.P. Shen, Asymptotic stability of traveling waves for the Nicholson's blowflies equation with diffusion, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 134 (2004) 579-594] for the speed with small initial perturbation and by Lin and Mei [C.-K. Lin, M. Mei, On travelling wavefronts of the Nicholson's blowflies equations with diffusion, submitted for publication] for c>c_∗ with sufficiently small delay time r≈0. The approach adopted in this paper is the technical weighted energy method used in [M. Mei, J.W.-H. So, M.Y. Li, S.S.P. Shen, Asymptotic stability of traveling waves for the Nicholson's blowflies equation with diffusion, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 134 (2004) 579-594], but inspired by Gourley [S.A. Gourley, Linear stability of travelling fronts in an age-structured reaction-diffusion population model, Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 58 (2005) 257-268] and based on the property of the critical wavefronts, the weight function is carefully selected and it plays a key role in proving the stability for any c>c_∗ and for an arbitrary time-delay r>0.     

Traveling wavefronts for time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation: (II) Nonlocal nonlinearity

This is the second part of a series of study on the stability of traveling wavefronts of reaction-diffusion equations with time delays. In this paper we will consider a nonlocal time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation. When the initial perturbation around the traveling wave decays exponentially as x→−∞ (but the initial perturbation can be arbitrarily large in other locations), we prove the asymptotic stability of all traveling waves for the reaction-diffusion equation, including even the slower waves whose speed are close to the critical speed. This essentially improves the previous stability results by Mei and So [M. Mei, J.W.-H. So, Stability of strong traveling waves for a nonlocal time-delayed reaction-diffusion equation, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 138 (2008) 551-568] for the speed with a small initial perturbation. The approach we use here is the weighted energy method, but the weight function is more tricky to construct due to the property of the critical wavefront, and the difficulty arising from the nonlocal nonlinearity is also overcome. Finally, by using the Crank-Nicholson scheme, we present some numerical results which confirm our theoretical study.     

Generalized fronts in reaction-diffusion equations with mono-stable nonlinearity

We consider transition fronts (generalized traveling fronts) of mono-stable reaction-diffusion equations with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearity. By constructing a cutoff function and using an approximate method, we establish the existence of transition fronts of the equation. Furthermore, we give the uniform non-degeneracy estimates of the solutions, such as a lower bound on the time derivative on some level sets, as well as an upper bound on the spatial derivative.     

Traveling fronts in diffusive and cooperative Lotka–Volterra system with nonlocal delays

This paper is concerned with a diffusive and cooperative Lotka–Volterra model with distributed delays and nonlocal spatial effect. By using an iterative technique recently developed by Wang, Li and Ruan (Traveling wave fronts in reaction-diffusion systems with spatio-temporal delays, J. Differential Equations 222 (2006), 185–232), sufficient conditions are established for the existence of traveling wave front solutions connecting the zero and the positive equilibria by choosing different kernels. The result is an extension of an existing result for Fisher-KPP equation with nonlocal delay and is somewhat parallel to the existing result for diffusive and cooperative Lotka–Volterra system with discrete delays. Supported by the NNSF of China (10571078) and the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of Ministry of Education of China.     

On the geometry of wave solutions of a delayed reaction-diffusion equation

The aim of this paper is to study the existence and the geometry of positive bounded wave solutions to a non-local delayed reaction-diffusion equation of the monostable type.     

Attractors for differential equations with unbounded delays

We prove the existence of attractors for some types of differential problems containing infinite delays. Applications and examples are provided to illustrate the theory, which is valid for both cases with and without explicit dependence of time, and with or without uniqueness of solutions, as well.     

Autonomous and non-autonomous attractors for differential equations with delays

The asymptotic behaviour of some types of retarded differential equations, with both variable and distributed delays, is analysed. In fact, the existence of global attractors is established for different situations: with and without uniqueness, and for both autonomous and non-autonomous cases, using the classical notion of attractor and the recently new concept of pullback one, respectively.     

Traveling waves in a nonlocal dispersal population model with age-structure

This paper is concerned with the traveling waves in a single species population model which is derived by considering the nonlocal dispersal and age-structure. If the birth function is monotone, then the existence of traveling wavefront is reduced to the existence of a pair of super and subsolutions without the requirement of smoothness. It is proved that the traveling wavefront is strictly increasing and unique up to a translation. The asymptotic behavior of traveling wavefronts is also obtained. If the birth function is not monotone, the existence of traveling wave solution is affirmed by introducing two auxiliary nonlocal dispersal equations with quasi-monotonicity.     

Approximating the ideal free distribution via reaction-diffusion-advection equations

We consider reaction-diffusion-advection models for spatially distributed populations that have a tendency to disperse up the gradient of fitness, where fitness is defined as a logistic local population growth rate. We show that in temporally constant but spatially varying environments such populations have equilibrium distributions that can approximate those that would be predicted by a version of the ideal free distribution incorporating population dynamics. The modeling approach shows that a dispersal mechanism based on local information about the environment and population density can approximate the ideal free distribution. The analysis suggests that such a dispersal mechanism may sometimes be advantageous because it allows populations to approximately track resource availability. The models are quasilinear parabolic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions.     

Global stability of wavefronts with minimal speeds for nonlocal dispersal equations with degenerate nonlinearity

This paper is concerned with the global stability of wavefronts with minimal speeds for degenerate nonlocal dispersal equations. By the method of super- and subsolutions and a squeezing technique, the wavefront with minimal speed is proved to be globally asymptotically stable with phase shift.     

Asymptotic behavior for nonlocal dispersal equations

This paper is concerned with the existence and asymptotic behavior of solutions of a nonlocal dispersal equation. By means of super-subsolution method and monotone iteration, we first study the existence and asymptotic behavior of solutions for a general nonlocal dispersal equation. Then, we apply these results to our equation and show that the nonnegative solution is unique, and the behavior of this solution depends on parameter λ in equation. For λ≤λ₁(Ω), the solution decays to zero as t→∞; while for λ>λ₁(Ω), the solution converges to the unique positive stationary solution as t→∞. In addition, we show that the solution blows up under some conditions.     

Bistable wavefronts in a diffusive and competitive Lotka-Volterra type system with nonlocal delays

A diffusive Lotka-Volterra type model with nonlocal delays for two competitive species is considered. The existence of a traveling wavefront analogous to a bistable wavefront for a single species is proved by transforming the system with nonlocal delays to a four-dimensional system without delay. Furthermore, in order to prove the asymptotic stability (up to translation) of bistable wavefronts of the system, the existence, regularity and comparison theorem of solutions of the corresponding Cauchy problem are first established for the systems on R by appealing to the theory of abstract functional differential equations. The asymptotic stability (up to translation) of bistable wavefronts are then proved by spectral methods. In particular, we also prove that the spreading speed is unique by upper and lower solutions technique. From the point of view of ecology, our results indicate that the nonlocal delays appeared in the interaction terms are not sensitive to the invasion of species of spatial isolation.     

Oscillations and limit cycles in Lotka-Volterra systems with delays

In this paper, competitive Lotka-Volterra systems are studied that have distributed delays and constant coefficients on interaction terms and have time dependent growth rate vectors with an asymptotically constant average. Algebraic conditions are found to rule out non-vanishing oscillations for such systems and heteroclinic limit cycles for autonomous systems. As a supplement to these results, simple sufficient conditions are provided for certain components of all solutions to vanish and a criterion is given for partial permanence. An outstanding feature of all these results is that the conditions are irrelevant of the size and distribution of the delays.     

Existence and stability of traveling wave fronts in reaction advection diffusion equations with nonlocal delay

This paper is concerned with the existence, uniqueness and globally asymptotic stability of traveling wave fronts in the quasi-monotone reaction advection diffusion equations with nonlocal delay. Under bistable assumption, we construct various pairs of super- and subsolutions and employ the comparison principle and the squeezing technique to prove that the equation has a unique nondecreasing traveling wave front (up to translation), which is monotonically increasing and globally asymptotically stable with phase shift. The influence of advection on the propagation speed is also considered. Comparing with the previous results, our results recovers and/or improves a number of existing ones. In particular, these results can be applied to a reaction advection diffusion equation with nonlocal delayed effect and a diffusion population model with distributed maturation delay, some new results are obtained.     

Two-parameter bifurcations in a network of two neurons with multiple delays

We consider a network of two coupled neurons with delayed feedback. We show that the connection topology of the network plays a fundamental role in classifying the rich dynamics and bifurcation phenomena. Regarding eigenvalues of the connection matrix as bifurcation parameters, we obtain codimension 1 bifurcations (including a fold bifurcation and a Hopf bifurcation) and codimension 2 bifurcations (including fold-Hopf bifurcations and Hopf-Hopf bifurcations). We also give concrete formulae for the normal form coefficients derived via the center manifold reduction that give detailed information about the bifurcation and stability of various bifurcated solutions. In particular, we obtain stable or unstable equilibria, periodic solutions, quasi-periodic solutions, and sphere-like surfaces of solutions. We also show how to evaluate critical normal form coefficients from the original system of delay-differential equations without computing the corresponding center manifolds.     

Travelling waves for a size and space structured model in population dynamics: Point to sustained oscillating solution connections

This work is devoted to the study of travelling wave solutions for some size structured model in population dynamics. The population under consideration is also spatially structured and has a nonlocal spatial reproduction. This phenomenon may model the invasion of plants within some empty landscape. Since the corresponding unspatially structured size structured models may induce oscillating dynamics due to Hopf bifurcations, the aim of this work is to prove the existence of point to sustained oscillating solution travelling waves for the spatially structured problem. From a biological view point, such solutions represent the spatial invasion of some species with spatio-temporal patterns at the place where the population is established.     

Sharp conditions for global stability of Lotka-Volterra systems with distributed delays

We give a criterion for the global attractivity of a positive equilibrium of n-dimensional non-autonomous Lotka-Volterra systems with distributed delays. For a class of autonomous Lotka-Volterra systems, we show that such a criterion is sharp, in the sense that it provides necessary and sufficient conditions for the global asymptotic stability independently of the choice of the delay functions. The global attractivity of positive equilibria is established by imposing a diagonal dominance of the instantaneous negative feedback terms, and relies on auxiliary results showing the boundedness of all positive solutions. The paper improves and generalizes known results in the literature, namely by considering systems with distributed delays rather than discrete delays.