Relaxation oscillations,subharmonic orbits and chaos in the dynamics of a linear lattice with a local essentially nonlinear attachment

We study the dynamic interactions between traveling waves propagating in a linear lattice and a lightweight, essentially nonlinear and damped local attachment. Correct to leading order, we reduce the dynamics to a strongly nonlinear damped oscillator forced by two harmonic terms. One of the excitation frequencies is characteristic of the traveling wave that impedes to the attachment, whereas the other accounts for local lattice dynamics. These two frequencies are energy-independent; a third energy-dependent frequency is present in the problem, characterizing the nonlinear oscillation of the attachment when forced by the traveling wave. We study this three-frequency strongly nonlinear problem through slow-fast partitions of the dynamics and resort to action-angle coordinates and Melnikov analysis. For damping below a critical threshold, we prove the existence of relaxation oscillations of the attachment; these oscillations are associated with enhanced targeted energy transfer from the traveling wave to the attachment. Moreover, in the limit of weak or no damping, we prove the existence of subharmonic oscillations of arbitrarily large periods, and of chaotic motions. The analytical results are supported by numerical simulations of the reduced order model.     

Stability for Monostable Wave Fronts of Delayed Lattice Differential Equations

This paper is concerned with the stability of traveling wave fronts for delayed monostable lattice differential equations. We first investigate the existence non-existence and uniqueness of traveling wave fronts by using the technique of monotone iteration method and Ikehara theorem. Then we apply the contraction principle to obtain the existence, uniqueness, and positivity of solutions for the Cauchy problem. Next, we study the stability of a traveling wave front by using comparison theorems for the Cauchy problem and initial-boundary value problem of the lattice differential equations, respectively. We show that any solution of the Cauchy problem converges exponentially to a traveling wave front provided that the initial function is a perturbation of the traveling wave front, whose asymptotic behaviour at \(-\infty \) satisfying some restrictions. Our results can apply to many lattice differential equations, for examples, the delayed cellular neural networks model and discrete diffusive Nicholson’s blowflies equation.     

Entire Solutions with Annihilating Fronts to a Nonlocal Dispersal Equation with Bistable Nonlinearity and Spatio-Temporal Delay

This paper deals with the entire solutions to a nonlocal dispersal bistable equation with spatio-temporal delay. Assuming that the equation has a traveling wave front with non-zero wave speed, we establish the existence of entire solutions with annihilating-fronts by using the comparison principle combined with explicit constructions of sub- and supersolutions. These entire solutions constitute a two-dimensional manifold and the traveling wave fronts belong to the boundary of the manifold. We also prove the uniqueness, Liapunov stability and continuous dependence on the shift parameters of the entire solutions.     

Existence and Uniqueness of Traveling Waves for Fully Overdamped Frenkel–Kontorova Models

In this article, we study the existence and the uniqueness of traveling waves for a discrete reaction–diffusion equation with bistable nonlinearity, namely a generalization of the fully overdamped Frenkel–Kontorova model. This model consists of a system of ODEs which describes the dynamics of crystal defects in lattice solids. Under very weak assumptions, we prove the existence of a traveling wave solution and the uniqueness of the velocity of propagation of this traveling wave. The question of the uniqueness of the profile is also studied by proving Strong Maximum Principle or some weak asymptotics on the profile at infinity.     

Existence of Traveling Waves of Invasion for Ginzburg–Landau-type Problems in Infinite Cylinders

We study a class of systems of reaction–diffusion equations in infinite cylinders which arise within the context of Ginzburg–Landau theories and describe the kinetics of phase transformation in second-order or weakly first-order phase transitions with non-conserved order parameters. We use a variational characterization to study the existence of a special class of traveling wave solutions which are characterized by a fast exponential decay in the direction of propagation. Our main result is a simple verifiable criterion for existence of these traveling waves under the very general assumptions of non-linearities. We also prove boundedness, regularity, and some other properties of the obtained solutions, as well as several sufficient conditions for existence or non-existence of such traveling waves, and give rigorous upper and lower bounds for their speed. In addition, we prove that the speed of the obtained solutions gives a sharp upper bound for the propagation speed of a class of disturbances which are initially sufficiently localized. We give a sample application of our results using a computer-assisted approach.     

Time Periodic Traveling Waves for a Periodic and Diffusive SIR Epidemic Model

In this paper, we study the time periodic traveling wave solutions for a periodic SIR epidemic model with diffusion and standard incidence. We establish the existence of periodic traveling waves by investigating the fixed points of a nonlinear operator defined on an appropriate set of periodic functions. Then we prove the nonexistence of periodic traveling via the comparison arguments combined with the properties of the spreading speed of an associated subsystem.     

Existence and stability of traveling waves in periodic media governed by a bistable nonlinearity

We prove the existence of multidimensional traveling wave solutions of the bistable reaction-diffusion equation with periodic coefficients under the condition that these coefficients are close to constants. In the case of one space dimension, we prove their asymptotic stability.     

Time-Asymptotic Limit of Solutions of a Combustion Problem

A combustion model which captures the interacting among nonlinear convection, chemical reaction and radiative heat transfer is studied. New phenomena are found with radiative heat transfer present. In particular, there is a detonation wave solution in which there is a sonic point inside the reaction zone. As a consequence, the traveling wave speed cannot be determined before the problem is solved. The shooting method is used to prove the existence of the traveling wave. The condition we shoot at is the compatibility condition at the sonic point. Furthermore, the speed of the detonation wave decreases as the heat loss coefficient increases, as expected physically. We study the time-asymptotic limit of solutions of initial value problem for the same problem. We prove that the solution exists globally and the solution converges uniformly, away from the shock, to a shifted traveling wave solution as t + for certain compact support initial data.     

Traveling Waves in Spatial SIRS Models

We study traveling wavefront solutions for two reaction–diffusion systems, which are derived respectively as diffusion approximations to two nonlocal spatial SIRS models. These solutions characterize the propagating progress and speed of the spatial spread of underlying epidemic waves. For the first diffusion system, we find a lower bound for wave speeds and prove that the traveling waves exist for all speeds bigger than this bound. For the second diffusion system, we find the minimal wave speed and show that the traveling waves exist for all speeds bigger than or equal to the minimal speed. We further prove the uniqueness (up to translation) of these solutions for sufficiently large wave speeds. The existence of these solutions are proved by a shooting argument combining with LaSalle’s invariance principle, and their uniqueness by a geometric singular perturbation argument.     

Existence,Uniqueness and Asymptotic Stability of Traveling Wavefronts in A Non-Local Delayed Diffusion Equation

In this paper, we study the existence, uniqueness, and global asymptotic stability of traveling wave fronts in a non-local reaction–diffusion model for a single species population with two age classes and a fixed maturation period living in a spatially unbounded environment. Under realistic assumptions on the birth function, we construct various pairs of super and sub solutions and utilize the comparison and squeezing technique to prove that the equation has exactly one non-decreasing traveling wavefront (up to a translation) which is monotonically increasing and globally asymptotic stable with phase shift.      

Existence of traveling wave solutions for a nonlinear dissipative-dispersive equation

In this paper, we consider a dissipative-dispersive nonlinear equation appliable to many physical phenomena. Using the geometric singular perturbation method based on the theory of dynamical systems, we investigate the existence of its traveling wave solutions with the dissipative terms having sufficiently small coefficients. The results show that the traveling waves exist on a two-dimensional slow manifold in a three-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations （ODEs）. Then, we use the Melnikov method to establish the existence of a homoclinic orbit in this manifold corresponding to a solitary wave solution of the equation. Furthermore, we present some numerical computations to show the approximations of such wave orbits.     

Traveling Wave Solutions for a Class of Predator–Prey Systems

We use a shooting method to show the existence of traveling wave fronts and to obtain an explicit expression of minimum wave speed for a class of diffusive predator?Cprey systems. The existence of traveling wave fronts indicates the existence of a transition zone from a boundary equilibrium to a co-existence steady state and the minimum wave speed measures the asymptotic speed of population spread in some sense. Our approach is a significant improvement of techniques introduced by Dunbar. The advantage of our method is that it does not need the notion of Wazewski??s set and LaSalle??s invariance principle used in Dunbar??s approach. In our approach, we convert the equations for traveling wave solutions to a system of first order equations by a ??non-traditional transformation??. With this converted new system, we are able to construct a Liapunov function, which gives an immediate implication of the boundedness and convergence of the relevant class of heteroclinic orbits. Our method provides a more efficient way to study the existence of traveling wave solutions for general predator?Cprey systems.     

Uniqueness of the Bistable Traveling Wave for Mutualist Species

For a system of reaction–diffusion equations that models the interaction of n mutualist species, the existence of the bistable traveling wave solution has been proved where the nonlinear reaction terms possess a certain type of monotonicity. However the problem of whether there can be two distinct traveling waves remains open. In this paper we use a homotopy approach incorporated with the Liapunov–Schmidt method to show that the bistable traveling wave solution is unique. Our method developed in this paper can also be applied to study the existence and uniqueness of traveling wave solutions for some competition models.     

Front-Like Entire Solutions for Monostable Reaction-Diffusion Systems

This paper is concerned with front-like entire solutions for monostable reaction-diffusion systems with cooperative and non-cooperative nonlinearities. In the cooperative case, the existence and asymptotic behavior of spatially independent solutions (SIS) are first proved. Further, combining a SIS and traveling fronts with different wave speeds and propagation directions, the existence and various qualitative properties of entire solutions are established by using the comparison principle. In the non-cooperative case, we introduce two auxiliary cooperative systems and establish a comparison theorem for the Cauchy problems of the three systems, and then prove the existence of entire solutions via using the comparison theorem, the traveling fronts and SIS of the auxiliary systems. Our results are applied to some biological and epidemiological models. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first work to study the entire solutions of non-cooperative reaction-diffusion systems.     

Traveling Wave Solutions for Delayed Reaction–Diffusion Systems and Applications to Diffusive Lotka–Volterra Competition Models with Distributed Delays

This paper is concerned with the traveling wave solutions of delayed reaction–diffusion systems. By using Schauder’s fixed point theorem, the existence of traveling wave solutions is reduced to the existence of generalized upper and lower solutions. Using the technique of contracting rectangles, the asymptotic behavior of traveling wave solutions for delayed diffusive systems is obtained. To illustrate our main results, the existence, nonexistence and asymptotic behavior of positive traveling wave solutions of diffusive Lotka–Volterra competition systems with distributed delays are established. The existence of nonmonotone traveling wave solutions of diffusive Lotka–Volterra competition systems is also discussed. In particular, it is proved that if there exists instantaneous self-limitation effect, then the large delays appearing in the intra-specific competitive terms may not affect the existence and asymptotic behavior of traveling wave solutions.     

Existence of multidimensional traveling waves in the transport of reactive solutes through periodic porous media

We prove the existence of multidimensional traveling-wave solutions to the scalar equation for the transport of solutes (contaminants) with nonlinear adsorption and spatially periodic convection-diffusion-adsorption coefficients under the assumption that the nonlinear adsorption function satisfies the Lax and Oleinik entropy conditions. In the nondegenerate case, we also prove the uniqueness of the traveling waves. These traveling waves are analogues of viscous shock profiles. They propagate with effective speeds that depend on the periodic porous media only up to their mean states, and are given by an averaged Rankine-Hugoniot relation. This is a direct consequence of the fact that the transport equation is in conservation form. We use the sliding domain method, the continuation method, spectral theory, maximum principles, and a priori estimates. In the degenerate case, the traveling waves are weak solutions of a degenerate parabolic equation and are only Holder continuous. We obtain them by taking suitable limits on the non-degenerate traveling waves. The uniqueness of the degenerate traveling waves is open.     

Traveling Wave Phenomena in a Kermack–McKendrick SIR Model

We study the existence and nonexistence of traveling waves of a general diffusive Kermack–McKendrick SIR model with standard incidence where the total population is not constant. The three classes, susceptible S, infected I and removed R, are all involved in the traveling wave solutions. We show that the minimum wave speed of traveling waves for the three-dimensional non-monotonic system can be derived from its linearizaion at the initial disease-free equilibrium. The proof in this paper is based on Schauder fixed point theorem and Laplace transform. Our study provides a promising method to deal with high dimensional epidemic models.     

Traveling Waves for a Biological Reaction-Diffusion Model

We investigate the existence of traveling wave solutions for a system of reaction–diffusion equations that has been used as a model for microbial growth in a flow reactor and for the diffusive epidemic population. The existence of traveling waves was conjectured early but only has been proved recently for sufficiently small diffusion coefficient by the singular perturbation technique. In this paper we show the existence of traveling waves for an arbitrary diffusion coefficient. Our approach is a shooting method with the aid of an appropriately constructed Liapunov function.Dedicated to Professor Shui-Nee Chow on the occasion of his 60th birthday.Wenzhang Huang-Research was supported in part by NSF Grant DMS-0204676.     

Combustion Fronts in a Porous Medium with Two Layers

We study a model for the lateral propagation of a combustion front through a porous medium with two parallel layers having different properties. The reaction involves oxygen and a solid fuel. In each layer, the model consists of a nonlinear reaction–diffusion–convection system, derived from balance equations and Darcy’s law. Under an incompressibility assumption, we obtain a simple model whose variables are temperature and unburned fuel concentration in each layer. The model includes heat transfer between the layers. We find a family of traveling wave solutions, depending on the heat transfer coefficient and other system parameters, that connect a burned state behind the combustion front to an unburned state ahead of it. These traveling waves are strong: they correspond to connecting orbits of a system of five ordinary differential equations that lie in the unstable manifold of a hyperbolic saddle and the stable manifold of a nonhyperbolic equilibrium. We argue that for physically relevant initial conditions, traveling waves that correspond to connecting orbits that approach the nonhyperbolic equilibrium along its center direction do not occur. When the heat transfer coefficient is small, we prove that strong traveling waves exist for a small range of system parameters, near parameter values where the two layers individually admit strong traveling waves with the same speed. When the heat transfer coefficient is large, we prove that strong traveling waves exist for a very large range of parameters. For small heat transfer, combustion typically does not occur simultaneously in the two layers; for large heat transfer, it does. The proofs use geometric singular perturbation theory. We give a numerical method to solve the nonlinear problem, and we present numerical simulations that indicate that the traveling waves we have found are in fact the dominant feature of solutions.     

Bifurcations and exact solutions of an asymptotic rotation-Camassa–Holm equation

This paper investigates the rotation-Camassa–Holm equation, which appears in long-crested shallow-water waves propagating in the equatorial ocean regions with the Coriolis effect due to the earth’s rotation. The rotation-Camassa–Holm equation contains the famous Camassa–Holm equation and is a special case of the generalized Camassa–Holm equation. By using the approach of dynamical systems and singular traveling wave theory to its traveling wave system, in different parameter conditions of the five-parameter space, the bifurcations of phase portraits are studied. Some exact explicit parametric representations of the smooth solitary wave solutions, periodic wave solutions, peakons and anti-peakons, periodic peakons as well as compacton solutions are obtained.