Joseph J. Pollacco | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Measuring qualitative change: A variational score for tracking dynamical shifts in partial differential equations

Partial differential equations (PDEs) regulate the behaviour of countless spatiotemporal systems in the physical and life sciences. In many cases, they encode the coupling between the system's degrees of freedom, leading to nonlinear equations whose solution space is challenging to explore exhaustively. Systematic approaches to PDE model exploration are a holy grail of computational science. In this article, we formulate a criterion for increasing the diversity of a search campaign, based on the PDE residual behaviour under solution deformation. We develop a practical formalism to compute this property and illustrate its role in a few cases of interest.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2024

Collective Invasion: When does domain curvature matter?

Real-world cellular invasion processes often take place in curved geometries. Such problems are frequently simplified in models to neglect the curved geometry in favour of computational simplicity, yet doing so risks inaccuracy in any model-based predictions. To quantify the conditions under which neglecting a curved geometry are justifiable, we examined solutions to the Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (Fisher-KPP) model, a paradigm nonlinear reaction-diffusion equation typically used to model spatial invasion, on an annular geometry. Defining $ε$ as the ratio of the annulus thickness $δ$ and radius $r_0$ we derive, through an asymptotic expansion, the conditions under which it is appropriate to ignore the domain curvature, a result that generalises to other reaction-diffusion equations with constant diffusion coefficient. We further characterise the nature of the solutions through numerical simulation for different $r_0$ and $δ$. Thus, we quantify the size of the deviation from an analogous simulation on the rectangle, and how this deviation changes across the width of the annulus. Our results grant insight into when it is appropriate to neglect the domain curvature in studying travelling wave behaviour in reaction-diffusion equations.

q-bio.CB↗