Nontrivial large-time behaviour in bistable reaction–diffusion equations

Bistable reaction–diffusion equations are known to admit one-dimensional travelling waves which are globally stable to one-dimensional perturbations—Fife and McLeod [7]. These planar waves are also stable to two-dimensional perturbations—Xin [30], Levermore-Xin [19], Kapitula [16]—provided that these perturbations decay, in the direction transverse to the wave, in an integrable fashion. In this paper, we first prove that this result breaks down when the integrability condition is removed, and we exhibit a large-time dynamics similar to that of the heat equation. We then apply this result to the study of the large-time behaviour of conical-shaped fronts in the plane, and exhibit cases where the dynamics is given by that of two advection–diffusion equations.      

Explicit periodic travelling waves for a discrete lambda–omega reaction–diffusion system

In 1973, Kopell and Howard introduced a λ–ω reaction–diffusion system and found an explicit family of periodic travelling wave solutions lying on circles with radius less than 1. Since λ–ω systems represent universal models for studying chemical processes, and onset of turbulent behaviour, etc., explicit solutions of λ–ω systems with delays or discrete λ–ω systems can be of further help when the only method for obtaining other solutions is through numerical computation. There are now much investigations of various λ–ω systems. However, it is of interest to note that none attempts to find explicit travelling wave solutions. In this paper, we investigate the existence of explicit solutions for the simplest Euler scheme of a λ–ω system with delays or advancements which is described as a coupled pair of partial difference equations. We are able to provide necessary as well as sufficient conditions for the existence of numerical periodic travelling wave solutions. Additionally, we also provide some examples to show that our explicit solutions are qualitatively different from those found by Kopell and Howard and hence they may be of interests for specialists in the area of reaction–diffusion systems.     

Multiplicity of supercritical fronts for reaction–diffusion equations in cylinders

We study multiplicity of the supercritical traveling front solutions for scalar reaction–diffusion equations in infinite cylinders which invade a linearly unstable equilibrium. These equations are known to possess traveling wave solutions connecting an unstable equilibrium to the closest stable equilibrium for all speeds exceeding a critical value. We show that these are, in fact, the only traveling front solutions in the considered problems for sufficiently large speeds. In addition, we show that other traveling fronts connecting to the unstable equilibrium may exist in a certain range of the wave speed. These results are obtained with the help of a variational characterization of such solutions.     

Numerical computation of sharp travelling waves of a degenerate diffusion–reaction equation arising in biofilm modelling

Many degenerate diffusion–reaction equations permit sharp travelling wave solutions that describe the propagation of an interface with finite speed. If the equation is at least double degenerate, the derivative of the travelling wave solution can blow up at the interface, which poses considerable challenges for the computation of the travelling wave speed. We propose a numerical method for this problem that is based on the idea to approximate the multiple degenerate problem by a family of simple degenerate problems. For the latter we propose an interval-bracketing algorithm based on the theory of Sanchez-Garduno and Maini. The travelling wave speed of the original problem is obtained as the limit of the travelling wave speeds of the auxiliary problems. The performance of the method is investigated in a numerical simulation experiment for a problem that arises in the mathematical modelling of biofilm processes.     

Oscillatory waves in reaction–diffusion equations with nonlocal delay and crossing-monostability

This paper is concerned with the existence of oscillatory waves in reaction–diffusion equations with nonlocal delay and crossing-monostability, which include many population models, and two main results are presented. In the first one, we establish the existence of non-monotone traveling waves from the trivial solution to the positive equilibrium. The approach is based on the construction of two associated auxiliary reaction–diffusion equations with quasi-monotonicity and a profile set in a suitable Banach space by using traveling fronts of the auxiliary equations. In the second one, we obtain the existence of periodic waves around the positive equilibrium by using Hopf bifurcation theorem.     

Stability of a nonlocal delayed reaction–diffusion equation with a non-monotone bistable nonlinearity

The present work is devoted to the stability and attractivity analysis of a nonlocal delayed reaction–diffusion equation (DRDE) with a non-monotone bistable nonlinearity that describes the population dynamics for a two-stage species with Allee effect. By the idea of relating the dynamics of the nonlinear term to the DRDE and some stability results for the monostable case, we describe some basin of attractions for the DRDE. Additionally, existence of heteroclinic orbits and periodic oscillations are also obtained. Numerical simulations are also given at last to verify our theoretical results.     

Exact solutions for logistic reaction–diffusion equations in biology

Reaction–diffusion equations with a nonlinear source have been widely used to model various systems, with particular application to biology. Here, we provide a solution technique for these types of equations in N-dimensions. The nonclassical symmetry method leads to a single relationship between the nonlinear diffusion coefficient and the nonlinear reaction term; the subsequent solutions for the Kirchhoff variable are exponential in time (either growth or decay) and satisfy the linear Helmholtz equation in space. Example solutions are given in two dimensions for particular parameter sets for both quadratic and cubic reaction terms.     

Existence of periodic travelling wave solutions of non-autonomous reaction–diffusion equations with lambda–omega type

Periodic travelling wave solutions of reaction–diffusion equations were studied by many authors. The λ–ω$\lambda \text{–}\omega$ type reaction–diffusion system is a notable special model that admits explicit periodic travelling wave solutions and was introduced by Kopell and Howard in 1973. There are now similar systems which are investigated by means of autonomous dynamics. In contrast, there are few papers which are concerned with non-autonomous cases. For this reason, we apply Mawhin’s continuation theorem to derive the existence of periodic travelling wave solutions for non-autonomous λ–ω$\lambda \text{–}\omega$ systems, and we describe the ‘disappearance’ of periodic travelling wave solutions under special situations. Our main result is also illustrated by examples.     

Blocking and invasion for reaction–diffusion equations in periodic media

We investigate the large time behavior of solutions of reaction–diffusion equations with general reaction terms in periodic media. We first derive some conditions which guarantee that solutions with compactly supported initial data invade the domain. In particular, we relate such solutions with front-like solutions such as pulsating traveling fronts. Next, we focus on the homogeneous bistable equation set in a domain with periodic holes, and specifically on the cases where fronts are not known to exist. We show how the geometry of the domain can block or allow invasion. We finally exhibit a periodic domain on which the propagation takes place in an asymmetric fashion, in the sense that the invasion occurs in a direction but is blocked in the opposite one.     

Non-simultaneous blow-up in localized reaction–diffusion equations

This article deals with blow-up solutions in reaction–diffusion equations coupled via localized exponential sources, subject to null Dirichlet conditions. The optimal and complete classification is obtained for simultaneous and non-simultaneous blow-up solutions. Moreover, blow-up rates and blow-up sets are also discussed. It is interesting that, in some exponent regions, blow-up phenomena depend sensitively on the choosing of initial data, and the localized nonlinearities play important roles in the blow-up properties of solutions.     

Traveling waves for a boundary reaction–diffusion equation

We prove the existence of a traveling wave solution for a boundary reaction–diffusion equation when the reaction term is the combustion nonlinearity with ignition temperature. A key role in the proof is plaid by an explicit formula for traveling wave solutions of a free boundary problem obtained as singular limit for the reaction–diffusion equation (the so-called high energy activation energy limit). This explicit formula, which is interesting in itself, also allows us to get an estimate on the decay at infinity of the traveling wave (which turns out to be faster than the usual exponential decay).     

Stability of mass action reaction–diffusion systems

Results on stability of two types of chemical reactions, one represented by an acyclic graph and the other as a reversible reaction have been extended to the case of reaction–diffusion systems. Lyapunov functions are used as the major method for showing asymptotic stability of spatially homogeneous equilibria. Some examples are considered for illustration.     

Averaging principle for a class of stochastic reaction–diffusion equations

We consider the averaging principle for stochastic reaction–diffusion equations. Under some assumptions providing existence of a unique invariant measure of the fast motion with the frozen slow component, we calculate limiting slow motion. The study of solvability of Kolmogorov equations in Hilbert spaces and the analysis of regularity properties of solutions, allow to generalize the classical approach to finite-dimensional problems of this type in the case of SPDE’s.     

Boundary null-controllability of linear diffusion–reaction equations

This Note deals with the boundary null-controllability of linear diffusion–reaction equations in a 2D bounded domain. We transform the determination of the sought HUM boundary control into the minimization of a continuous and strictly convex functional. In the case of a rectangular domain where the diffusion tensor is represented by a diagonal matrix, we establish a procedure based on the inner product method that uses a complete orthonormal family of Sturm–Liouville's eigenfunctions to express explicitly the sought control.