Travelling front solutions in a spatially heterogeneous reaction-diffusion system

M. Chirilus-Bruckner; L. van Vianen; F. Veerman

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2507.21797

Travelling front solutions in a spatially heterogeneous reaction-diffusion system

M. Chirilus-Bruckner·L. van Vianen·F. Veerman

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We investigate a two-component reaction-diffusion system with a slow-fast structure and spatially varying coefficients $f_1$ and $f_2$ appearing in the slow equation. Under mild boundedness and regularity conditions on $f_1$ and $f_2$ the system is shown to exhibit bi-stability in the form of two stable stationary heterogeneous background states. These background states can be connected by stationary and travelling front solutions. Travelling fronts feature an interface that moves with a non-uniform speed through the motionless spatially varying background states it connects. We construct both the background states and stationary fronts using an extension of Fenichel theory to the non-compact case. Additionally, we establish the existence of travelling front solutions and derive a leading-order expression for the dynamic position of the moving interface through a time-dependent spatial dynamics approach. This expression takes the form of a delay-differential equation, and its accuracy is validated through numerical simulations. A key contribution of our work lies in the general treatment of $f_1$ and $f_2$, which are neither (necessarily) asymptotically small nor restricted to specific forms such as periodic or localized structures. Furthermore, our derivation of the front position formula circumvents the traditional reliance on spectral analysis, enabling us to describe front dynamics beyond bifurcations from stationary fronts. This approach has the potential to be extended to other settings in which spectral properties at onset preclude conventional reduction techniques.

Explore related subjects

math.AP nlin.PS

Keep this discovery

BibTeX RIS

M. Chirilus-Bruckner, L. van Vianen, F. Veerman. 2025-07-29. Travelling front solutions in a spatially heterogeneous reaction-diffusion system. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21797

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Well-posedness of the two-dimensional unsteady Prandtl system in Sobolev space with degenerate critical points

This paper is devoted to the well-posedness of classical Prandtl equations in a finite order Sobolev space. For a initial data with degenerate critical points and general outflow, we obtain the local-in-time existence and uniqueness of the solution to the Prandtl equations in a Sobolev space, by introducing a new iteration scheme and linear cancelation. This result shows that Oleinik's monotonicity condition is not a necessary condition for the Prandtl equations to be well-posed in Sobolev spaces and provides evidence to demonstrate that zero shear stress does not necessarily lead to boundary layer separation in two-dimensional unsteady boundary layers.

math.AP↗

arXiv2026

Global existence and time decay for a bipolar Euler-Poisson system with one pressureless and undamped fluid

We study the Cauchy problem for a three-dimensional bipolar Euler--Poisson system in which one fluid is pressureless and undamped, while the other is subject to momentum relaxation. For sufficiently small smooth perturbations of a constant equilibrium, we prove the global existence and uniqueness of smooth solutions under an irrotationality assumption on the initial velocity of the pressureless fluid, together with algebraic time-decay estimates. The main difficulty is that the velocity of the pressureless fluid is dissipated only indirectly through the Poisson coupling, and this mechanism degenerates strongly at high frequencies, leading to a regularity-loss structure. We overcome this difficulty by combining refined Green-function estimates, a low--middle--high frequency decomposition, and high-order nonlinear energy estimates adapted to the asymmetric regularity hierarchy. The result establishes a global small-data theory for this asymmetric regime, in which pressure and damping are simultaneously absent from the same fluid.

math.AP↗

arXiv2026

Boundary layer of 2D Chemotaxis Navier-Stokes equations with logarithmic Sensitivity. II. viscous vanishing limit

This is the second part of a two-part work concerning boundary layer solutions to the coupled Chemotaxis-Navier-Stokes system in the two-dimensional half-space. In the present work, we address the convergence of boundary layer solutions to singular chemotaxis-fluid equations under slip boundary conditions with respect to the chemical diffusion-viscosity parameter $\varepsilon$ in the two-dimensional half-plane. More precisely, we show that the boundary layer for $\varepsilon>0$ (viscous convection coefficient) converges to the superposition of the outer layer (solution with $\varepsilon=0$) and the inner layer as $\varepsilon\rightarrow0$. The outer and inner profiles are explicitly derived as in the first part\cite{WWZ}. Furthermore, the well-posedness results of the coupled Chemotaxis-Navier-Stokes system in conormal Sobolev spaces will be presented in Appendix. They answer the question mentioned in the first part of the two-part work. This study could help the understanding of the chemotactic movement of aerobic bacteria to the water-air surface observed experimentally in fluids, and enrich the theoretical results of boundary layer in chemotactic fluid models.

math.AP↗