The effects of unequal diffusion coefficients on periodic travelling waves in oscillatory reaction-diffusion systems

Many oscillatory biological systems show periodic travelling waves. These are often modelled using coupled reaction-diffusion equations. However, the effects of different movement rates (diffusion coefficients) of the interacting components on the predictions of these equations are largely unknown. Here we investigate the ways in which varying the diffusion coefficients in such equations alters the wave speed, time period, wavelength, amplitude and stability of periodic wave solutions. We focus on two sets of kinetics that are commonly used in ecological applications: lambda-omega equations, which are the normal form of an oscillatory coupled reaction-diffusion system close to a supercritical Hopf bifurcation, and a standard predator-prey model. Our results show that changing the ratio of the diffusion coefficients can significantly alter the shape of the one-parameter family of periodic travelling wave solutions. The position of the boundary between stable and unstable waves also depends on the ratio of the diffusion coefficients: in all cases, stability changes through an Eckhaus (‘sideband’) instability. These effects are always symmetrical in the two diffusion coefficients for the lambda-omega equations, but are asymmetric in the predator-prey equations, especially when the limit cycle of the kinetics is of large amplitude. In particular, there are two separate regions of stable waves in the travelling wave family for some parameter values in the predator-prey scenario. Our results also show the existence of a one-parameter family of travelling waves, but not necessarily a Hopf bifurcation, for all values of the diffusion coefficients. Simulations of the full partial differential equations reveals that varying the ratio of the diffusion coefficients can significantly change the properties of periodic travelling waves that arise from particular wave generation mechanisms, and our analysis of the travelling wave families assists in the understanding of these effects.     

FRICTION-INDUCED VIBRATION IN PERIODIC LINEAR ELASTIC MEDIA

For a one-dimensional finite elastic continuum with distributed contacts and periodic boundary conditions, the presence of unstable waves is investigated. The stability of the waves is evaluated and explanations for instabilities under a constant coefficient of friction are provided. A negative slope in the coefficient of friction as a function of sliding speed is not a necessary condition for the occurrence of dynamic instability. Dynamic instability occurs in the form of self-excited, unstable, travelling waves. The stabilizing effects of external and internal damping were studied. Low- and high-frequency terms of the travelling waves are stabilized by adding external and internal damping respectively. Responses corresponding to unstable eigenvalues can dominate the system response. It is presumed that this can lead to squeaking or squealing noise in applications.     

Traveling periodic waves of chemical activity

It is shown that within the manifold of exact solutions a system of reaction-diffusion equations admits only travelling waves with planar symmetry. A derivation of the generic form of approximate (asymptotic) cylindrical and spiral travelling periodic wave solutions is given. If an exact solution homogeneous in space and periodic in time is admitted by the system of reaction-diffusion equations, then travelling periodic spiral waves are admissble as approximate solutions. This is the theoretical explanation for the travelling periodic waves of chemical activity observed in recent experiments.     

Complex oscillations and waves of calcium in pancreatic acinar cells

We perform a bifurcation analysis of a model of Ca²⁺ wave propagation in the basal region of pancreatic acinar cells. The model we consider was first presented in Sneyd et al. [J. Sneyd, K. Tsaneva-Atanasova, J.I.E. Bruce, S.V. Straub, D.R. Giovannucci, D.I. Yule, A model of calcium waves in pancreatic and parotid acinar cells, Biophys. J. 85 (2003) 1392–1405], where a partial bifurcation analysis was given of the model in the absence of diffusion. We obtain more complete information about bifurcations of the diffusionless model via numerical studies, then analyse the spatially extended model by numerical investigation of the travelling wave equations and direct numerical solution of the model equations. We find solitary waves in the model equations arising from homoclinic bifurcations in the travelling wave equations. The solitary waves exist and appear to be stable for a significant interval of the primary bifurcation parameter (i.e., the concentration of inositol trisphosphate) but are eventually replaced by irregular spatio-temporal behaviour. The homoclinic bifurcations are related to a number of complicated mathematical structures in the travelling wave equations, including an anomalous homoclinic-Hopf bifurcation, heteroclinic bifurcations between an equilibrium and a periodic orbit, and homoclinic bifurcations of periodic orbits.     

Spinodal decomposition of an ABv model alloy: Patterns at unstable surfaces

We develop mean-field kinetic equations for a lattice gas model of a binary alloy with vacancies (ABv model) in which diffusion takes place by a vacancy mechanism. These equations are applied to the study of phase separation of finite portions of an unstable mixture immersed in a stable vapor. Due to a larger mobility of surface atoms, the most unstable modes of spinodal decomposition are localized at the vapor-mixture interface. Simulations show checkerboard-like structures at the surface or surface-directed spinodal waves. We determine the growth rates of bulk and surface modes by a linear stability analysis and deduce the relation between the parameters of the model and the structure and length scale of the surface patterns. The thickness of the surface patterns is related to the concentration fluctuations in the initial state. Received 28 October 1998     

Intensity fluctuations in a ring laser taking into consideration a spatial population-inversion grating

The correlation functions of the intensity fluctuations are calculated by use of a linearization procedure for the equations of motion which include the coupling of the counter-rotating travelling waves of the ring laser in the cases of Doppler broadening, of homogeneous broadening with a self-induced population-inversion grating, and in intermediate cases. Depending on the strength of the mode competition various stable stationary solutions exist for the amplitudes. The transition between these stable states shows phenomena closely resembling phase transitions such as critical fluctuations, critical slowing down, etc. In particular, when the system passes from the state where both modes are above threshold to the state where one mode is below threshold, the negative cross-correlation of the fluctuations also becomes critical. In the case of the transient behaviour of the ring laser in the unstable region the time development of the amplitudes and the correlation functions are described in a short-time approximation.     

Spectral stability of periodic waves in the generalized reduced Ostrovsky equation

We consider stability of periodic travelling waves in the generalized reduced Ostrovsky equation with respect to co-periodic perturbations. Compared to the recent literature, we give a simple argument that proves spectral stability of all smooth periodic travelling waves independent of the nonlinearity power. The argument is based on the energy convexity and does not use coordinate transformations of the reduced Ostrovsky equations to the semi-linear equations of the Klein–Gordon type.     

Numerical analysis of the Eckhaus instability in travelling-wave convection in binary mixtures

The Eckhaus stability boundaries of travelling periodic roll patterns arising in binary fluid convection is analysed using high-resolution numerical methods. We present results corresponding to three different values of the separation ratio used in experiments. Our results show that the subcritical branches of travelling waves bifurcating at the onset of convection suffer sideband instabilities that are restabilised further away in the branch. If this restabilisation is produced after the turning point of the travelling-wave branch, these waves do not become stable in a saddle node bifurcation as would have been the case in a smaller domain. In the regions of instability of the uniform travelling waves we expect to find either transitions between states of different wave number or modulated travelling waves arising in these bifurcations.     

Nonlinear travelling waves in φ6 polarizable model

We present a complete theoretical analysis of the periodic and non-periodic travelling waves in a diatomic chain model, in the continuum limit by incorporating nonlinear sixth order polarization potential (φ⁶) at the anion site. We have formulated a nonlinear lattice dynamical theory in which various energy curves are obtained for different types and magnitudes of the core-shell force constants. For periodic solutions, we have obtained two types of commensurate wave amplitudes which propagate in the opposite direction with respect to each other. For nonperiodic solutions, we have obtained various travelling excitations such as kink, antikink, excitons etc. for different values of the mass ratio and velocity parameter. The dipole moment per unit charge for SrTiO₃ has been calculated and it is found that the nonlinear excitations in this model carry large amount of energy as compared to those obtained from harmonic and anharmonic optical phonons in the φ⁴-polarizable model.     

Study on Solitary Waves of a General Boussinesq Model

In this paper, we employ the bifurcation method of dynamical systems to study the solitary waves and periodic waves of a generalized Boussinesq equations. All possible phase portraits in the parameter plane for the travelling wave systems are obtained. The possible solitary wave solutions, periodic wave solutions and cusp waves for the general Boussinesq type fluid model are also investigated.     

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of travelling pulses and spiral waves in the lattice Lotka-Volterra model

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the stochastic two-species Lotka-Volterra model on a square lattice. For certain values of the model parameters, the system constitutes an excitable medium: travelling pulses and rotating spiral waves can be excited. Stable solitary pulses travel with constant (modulo stochastic fluctuations) shape and speed along a periodic lattice. The spiral waves observed persist sometimes for hundreds of rotations, but they are ultimately unstable and break-up (because of fluctuations and interactions between neighboring fronts) giving rise to complex dynamic behavior in which numerous small spiral waves rotate and interact with each other. It is interesting that travelling pulses and spiral waves can be exhibited by the model even for completely immobile species, due to the non-local reaction kinetics.     

Different localized states of travelling-wave convection in a rectangular container

We have performed numerical simulations of localized travelling-wave convection in a binary fluid mixture heated from below in a long rectangular container. Calculations are carried out in a vertical cross section of the rolls perpendicular to their axes. For a negative enough separation ratio, two types of quite different confined states were documented by applying different control processes. One branch of localized travelling waves survives only in a very narrow band within subcritical regime, while another branch straddles the onset of convection existing both in subcritical and supercritical regions. We elucidated that concentration field and its current are key to understand how confined convection is sustained when conductive state is absolutely unstable. The weak structures in the conducting region are demonstrated too.     

Amplitude expansions for instabilities in populations of globally-coupled oscillators

We analyze the nonlinear dynamics near the incoherent state in a mean-field model of coupled oscillators. The population is described by a Fokker-Planck equation for the distribution of phases, and we apply center-manifold reduction to obtain the amplitude equations for steady-state and Hopf bifurcation from the equilibrium state with a uniform phase distribution. When the population is described by a native frequency distribution that is reflection-symmetric about zero, the problem has circular symmetry. In the limit of zero extrinsic noise, although the critical eigenvalues are embedded in the continuous spectrum, the nonlinear coefficients in the amplitude equation remain finite, in contrast to the singular behavior found in similar instabilities described by the Vlasov-Poisson equation. For a bimodal reflection-symmetric distribution, both types of bifurcation are possible and they coincide at a codimension-two Takens-Bogdanov point. The steady-state bifurcation may be supercritical or subcritical and produces a time-independent synchronized state. The Hopf bifurcation produces both supercritical stable standing waves and supercritical unstable traveling waves. Previous work on the Hopf bifurcation in a bimodal population by Bonilla, Neu, and Spigler and by Okuda and Kuramoto predicted stable traveling waves and stable standing waves, respectively. A comparison to these previous calculations shows that the prediction of stable traveling waves results from a failure to include all unstable modes.     

Current layers and filaments in a semiconductor model with an impact ionization induced instability

Dissipative structures associated with an instability in a semiconductor far from equilibrium are studied. A generation-recombination mechanism, which effects anS-shaped current-voltage characteristics, is coupled to diffusion and drift of the electrons. The spectrum of linear recombination-diffusion modes is computed for the homogeneous steady state with negative differential conductivity. The obtained soft mode instability gives rise to the bifurcation of a family of transversally modulated inhomogeneous steady states and longitudinal travelling waves. The inhomogeneous steady states are calculated from the full nonlinear transport equations for plane and cylindrical geometries. They correspond to oscillatory and solitary concentration profiles, including depletion and accumulation layers and cylindrical filaments. Conditions for the formation of kink-shaped coexistence profiles are established in terms of equal area rules. The current-voltage characteristics are extended to include inhomogeneous current states. Nonequilibrium phase transitions between various branches of these characteristics are associated with switching through filamentation.     

Propagation and ignition of fast gasless detonation waves of phase or chemical transformation in condensed matter

Fast self sustained waves of chemical or phase transformations, observed in several contexts in condensed matter effectively result in “gasless detonation". The phenomenon is modelled by coupling the reaction diffusion equation, describing chemical or phase transformations, and the wave equation, describing elastic perturbations. The coupling considered in this work involves (i) a dependence of the sound velocity on the chemical (phase) field, and (ii) the destruction of the initial chemical equilibrium when the strain exceeds a critical value (strain induced phase transition). Both the case of an initially unstable state (first order kinetics) and metastable state (second order kinetics) are considered. An exhaustive analytic and numerical study of travelling waves reveals the existence of supersonic modes of transformations. The practically important problem of ignition of fast waves by mechanical perturbation is investigated. With the present model, the critical strain necessary to ignite gasless detonation by local perturbations is determined. Received 18 November 1999     

On the stability of nonlinear waves in integrable models

A new method of stability investigation is presented for solutions of nonlinear equations integrable with the help of the inverse scattering transform (IST). The stability problem for periodic nonlinear waves in weakly dispersive media is solved with respect to transverse perturbations. It is shown that for positive dispersion media one-dimensional waves are unstable, and for negative dispersion such waves are stable.     

Hydrodynamic modes,soft modes and fluctuation spectra near the threshold of a current instability

We give a full threedimensional treatment of the stability and the fluctuations of the uniform stationary current state in a voltage-controlled current instability. We consider a model which exhibits bulk negative differential conductivity due to Bragg scattering of hot electrons. The model consists of Langevin equations for the mean momentum and the mean energy of the charged carriers, coupled to Maxwell's equations. We investigate the normal modes and the fluctuation spectra of this system, in particular the occurrence of soft modes and of critical fluctuations at the stability limit of the uniform current state. It is shown that the nature of the normal modes is strongly determined by the electromagnetic interactions between the carriers, giving rise to hydrodynamic flux modes and to dielectric relaxation modes. As the threshold field is approached, the dielectric relaxation modes soften and couple strongly to the flux modes. It is shown that as a consequence of this coupling the exponential decay of the correlation functions due to ordinary dielectric relaxation is followed at very long times by a power law decay due to the hydrodynamic modes.Work supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation     

Instabilities in threshold-diffusion equations with delay

The introduction of delays into ordinary or partial differential equation models is well known to facilitate the production of rich dynamics, ranging from periodic solutions through to spatio-temporal chaos. In this paper, we consider a class of scalar partial differential equations with a delayed threshold nonlinearity which admits exact solutions for equilibria, periodic orbits and travelling waves. Importantly, we show how the spectra of periodic and travelling wave solutions can be determined in terms of the zeros of a complex analytic function. Using this as a computational tool to determine stability, we show that delays can have very different effects on threshold systems with negative as opposed to positive feedback. Direct numerical simulations are used to confirm our bifurcation analysis, and to probe some of the rich behaviour possible for mixed feedback.     

From the inverted pendulum to the periodic interface modes

The physics of the spatial propagation of monochromatic waves in periodic media is related to the temporal evolution of the parametric oscillators. We transpose the possibility that a parametric pendulum oscillates in the vicinity of its unstable equilibrium position to the case of monochromatic waves in a lossless unidimensional periodic medium. We develop this concept, that can formally applies to any kind of waves, to the case of longitudinal elastic wave. Our analysis yields us to study the propagation of monochromatic waves in a periodic structure involving two main periods. We evidence a class of phonons we refer to as periodic interface modes that propagate in these structures. These modes are similar to the optical Tamm states exhibited in photonic crystals. Our analysis is based on both a formal and an analytical approach. The application of the concept to the case of phonons in an experimentally realizable structure is given. We finally show how to control the frequencies of these phonons from the engineering of the periodic structure.     

Propagation of travelling waves in sub-excitable systems driven by noise and periodic forcing

It has been reported that traveling waves propagate periodically and stably in sub-excitable systems driven by noise [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 138301 (2002)]. As a further investigation, here we observe different types of traveling waves under different noises and periodic forces, using a simplified Oregonator model. Depending on different noises and periodic forces, we have observed different types of wave propagation (or their disappearance). Moreover, reversal phenomena are observed in this system based on the numerical experiments in the one-dimensional space. We explain this as an effect of periodic forces. Thus, we give qualitative explanations for how stable reversal phenomena appear, which seem to arise from the mixing function of the periodic force and the noise. The output period and three velocities (normal, positive and negative) of the travelling waves are defined and their relationship with the periodic forces, along with the types of waves, are also studied in sub-excitable system under a fixed noise intensity. Electronic supplementary material Supplementary Online Material