arXiv subjects

Maolin Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to Maolin Zhou.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Optimisation of total population in logistic model with nonlocal dispersals and heterogeneous environments

In this paper, we investigate the issue of maximizing the total equilibrium population with respect to resources distribution m(x) and diffusion rates d under the prescribed total amount of resources in a logistic model with nonlocal dispersals. Among other things, we show that for $d\ge1$, there exist $C_0, C_1>0$, depending on the $\|m\|_{L^1}$ only, such that $$C_0\sqrt{d}<\mbox{supremum~ of~ total~ population}<C_1\sqrt{d}.$$ However, when replaced by random diffusion, a conjecture, proposed by Ni and justified in [3], indicates that in the one-dimensional case, supremum of total population$=3\|m\|_{L^1}$. This reflects serious discrepancies between models with local and nonlocal dispersal strategies.

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arXiv2022

Sharp estimates for the spreading speeds of the Lotka-Volterra competition-diffusion system: the strong-weak type

We consider the classical two-species Lotka-Volterra competition-diffusion system in the strong-weak competition case. When the corresponding minimal speed of the traveling waves is not linear determined, we establish the precise asymptotic behavior of the solution of the Cauchy problem in two different situations: (i) one species is an invasive one and the other is a native species; (ii) both two species are invasive species.

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arXiv2021

Asymptotics of the principal eigenvalue for a linear time-periodic parabolic operator I: Large advection

We investigate the effects of advection on the principal eigenvalues of linear time-periodic parabolic operators with zero Neumann boundary conditions. Various asymptotic behaviors of the principal eigenvalues, when advection coefficient approaches infinity, are established in heterogeneous environments, where spatial or temporal degeneracy could occur in the advection term. Our findings partially extend the existing results in Chen-Lou [2008 Indiana Univ. Math. J.] and Peng-Zhou [2018 Indiana Univ. Math. J.] for elliptic operators and those in Peng-Zhao [2015 Calc. Var. Partial Diff.] for parabolic operators.

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arXiv2021

Asymptotics of the principal eigenvalue for a linear time-periodic parabolic operator II: Small diffusion

We investigate the effect of small diffusion on the principal eigenvalues of linear time-periodic parabolic operators with zero Neumann boundary conditions in one dimensional space. The asymptotic behaviors of the principal eigenvalues, as the diffusion coefficients tend to zero, are established for non-degenerate and degenerate spatial-temporally varying environments. A new finding is the dependence of these asymptotic behaviors on the periodic solutions of a specific ordinary differential equation induced by the drift. The proofs are based upon delicate constructions of super/sub-solutions and the applications of comparison principles.

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arXiv2020

Sharp estimates for the spreading speed of the Lotka-Volterra diffusion system with strong competition

This paper is concerned with the classical two-species Lotka-Volterra diffusion system with strong competition. The sharp dynamical behavior of the solution is established in two different situations: either one species is an invasive one and the other is a native one or both are invasive species. Our results seem to be the first that provide a precise spreading speed and profile for such a strong competition system. Among other things, our analysis relies on the construction of new types of supersolution and subsolution, which are optimal in certain sense.

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arXiv2020

Semi-wave and spreading speed of the nonlocal Fisher-KPP equation with free boundaries

In Cao, Du, Li and Li [8], a nonlocal diffusion model with free boundaries extending the local diffusion model of Du and Lin [12] was introduced and studied. For Fisher-KPP type nonlinearities, its long-time dynamical behaviour is shown to follow a spreading-vanishing dichotomy. However, when spreading happens, the question of spreading speed was left open in [8]. In this paper we obtain a rather complete answer to this question. We find a condition on the kernel function such that spreading grows linearly in time exactly when this condition holds, which is achieved by completely solving the associated semi-wave problem that determines this linear speed; when the kernel function violates this condition, we show that accelerating spreading happens.

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arXiv2019

The Fisher-KPP equation over simple graphs: Varied persistence states in river networks

In this article, we study the growth and spread of a new species in a river network with two or three branches via the Fisher-KPP advection-diffusion equation over some simple graphs with every edge a half infinite line. We obtain a rather complete description of the long-time dynamical behavior for every case under consideration, which can be loosely described by a trichotomy (see Remark 1.7), including two different kinds of persistence states as parameters vary. The phenomenon of "persistence below carrying capacity" revealed here appears new, which does not occur in related models of the existing literature where the river network is represented by graphs with finite-lengthed edges, or the river network is simplified to a single infinite line.

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arXiv2019

Monotonicity of the principal eigenvalue for a linear time-periodic parabolic operator

We investigate the effect of frequency on the principal eigenvalue of a time-periodic parabolic operator with Dirichlet, Robin or Neumann boundary conditions. The monotonicity and asymptotic behaviors of the principal eigenvalue with respect to the frequency parameter are established. Our results prove a conjecture raised by Hutson, Michaikow and Poláčik [2001 J. Math. Biol.].

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arXiv2018

Asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue of a linear second order elliptic operator with small/large diffusion coefficient and its application

In this article, we are concerned with the following eigenvalue problem of a linear second order elliptic operator: \begin{equation} \nonumber -DΔϕ-2α\nabla m(x)\cdot \nablaϕ+V(x)ϕ=λϕ \ \hbox{ in }Ω, \end{equation} complemented by a general boundary condition including Dirichlet boundary condition and Robin boundary condition: $$ \frac{\partialϕ}{\partial n}+β(x)ϕ=0 \ \ \hbox{ on }\partialΩ, $$ where $β\in C(\partialΩ)$ allows to be positive, sign-changing or negative, and $n(x)$ is the unit exterior normal to $\partialΩ$ at $x$. The domain $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^N$ is bounded and smooth, the constants $D>0$ and $α>0$ are, respectively, the diffusive and advection coefficients, and $m\in C^2(\barΩ),\,V\in C(\barΩ)$ are given functions. We aim to investigate the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue of the above eigenvalue problem as the diffusive coefficient $D\to0$ or $D\to\infty$. Our results, together with those of \cite{CL2,DF,Fr} where the Nuemann boundary case (i.e., $β=0$ on $\partialΩ$) and Dirichlet boundary case were studied, reveal the important effect of advection and boundary conditions on the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue. We also apply our results to a reaction-diffusion-advection equation which is used to describe the evolution of a single species living in a heterogeneous stream environment and show some interesting behaviors of the species persistence and extinction caused by the buffer zone and small/large diffusion rate.

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arXiv2018

Logarithmic corrections in Fisher-KPP type Porous Medium Equations

We consider the large time behaviour of solutions to the porous medium equation with a Fisher-KPP type reaction term and nonnegative, compactly supported initial function in $L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^N)\setminus\{0\}$: \begin{equation} \label{eq:abstract} \tag{$\star$}u_t=Δu^m+u-u^2\quad\text{in }Q:=\mathbb{R}^N\times\mathbb{R}_+,\qquad u(\cdot,0)=u_0\quad\text{in }\mathbb{R}^N, \end{equation} with $m>1$. It is well known that the spatial support of the solution $u(\cdot, t)$ to this problem remains bounded for all time $t>0$. In spatial dimension one it is known that there is a minimal speed $c_*>0$ for which the equation admits a wavefront solution $Φ_{c_*}$ with a finite front, and it attract solutions with initial functions behaving like a Heaviside function. In dimension one we can obtain an analogous stability result for the case of compactly supported initial data. In higher dimensions we show that $Φ_{c_*}$ is still attractive, albeit that a logarithmic shifting occurs. More precisely, if the initial function in \eqref{eq:abstract} is additionally assumed to be radially symmetric, then there exists a second constant $c^*>0$ independent of the dimension $N$ and the initial function $u_0$, such that \[ \lim_{t\to\infty}\left\{\sup_{x\in\mathbb R^N}\big|u(x,t)-Φ_{c_*}(|x|-c_*t+(N-1)c^*\log t-r_0)\big|\right\}=0 \] for some $r_0\in\mathbb{R}$ (depending on $u_0$). If the initial function is not radially symmetric, then there exist $r_1, r_2\in \mathbb{R}$ such that the boundary of the spatial support of the solution $u(\cdot, t)$ is contained in the spherical shell $\{x\in\mathbb R^N: r_1\leq |x|-c_* t+(N-1)c^* \log t\leq r_2\}$ for all $t\ge1$. Moreover, as $t\to\infty$, $u(x,t)$ converges to $1$ uniformly in $\big\{|x|\leq c_*t-(N-1)c\log t\big\}$ for any $c>c^*$.

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arXiv2017

Refined estimates for the propagation speed of the transition solution to a free boundary problem with a nonlinearity of combustion type

We are concerned with the nonlinear problem $u_t=u_{xx}+f(u)$, where $f$ is of combustion type, coupled with the Stefan-type free boundary $h(t)$. According to [4,5], for some critical initial data, the transition solution $u$ locally uniformly converges to $θ$, which is the ignition temperature of $f$, and the free boundary satisfies $h(t)=C\sqrt{t}+o(1)\sqrt{t}$ for some positive constant $C$ and all large time $t$. In this paper, making use of two different approaches, we establish more accurate upper and lower bound estimates on $h(t)$ for the transition solution, which suggest that the nonlinearity $f$ can essentially influence the propagation speed.

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arXiv2016

Effects of large degenerate advection and boundary conditions on the principal eigenvalue and its eigenfunction of a linear second order elliptic operator

In this article, we study, as the coefficient $s\to\infty$, the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue of $$-φ''(x)-2sm'(x)φ'(x)+c(x)φ(x)=λ_sφ(x),\ \ 0<x<1,$$ supplemented by different boundary conditions. This problem is relevant to nonlinear propagation phenomena in reaction-diffusion equations. The main point is that the advection (or drift) term $m$ allows natural degeneracy. For instance, $m$ could be constant on $[a,b]\subset[0,1]$. Depending on the behavior of $m$ near the neighbourhood of the end points $a,\,b$, the limiting value could be the principal eigenvalue of $$-φ''(x)+c(x)φ(x)=λφ(x),\ \ a<x<b,$$ coupled with Dirichlet or Newmann boundary condition. A complete understanding of the limiting behavior of the principal eigenvalue and its eigenfunction is obtained, and new fundamental effects of large degenerate advection and boundary conditions on the principal eigenvalue and the principal eigenfunction are revealed. In one space dimension, the results in the existing literature are substantially improved.

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arXiv2016

A diffusive Fisher-KPP equation with free boundaries and time-periodic advections

We consider a reaction-diffusion-advection equation of the form: $u_t=u_{xx}-β(t)u_x+f(t,u)$ for $x\in (g(t),h(t))$, where $β(t)$ is a $T$-periodic function representing the intensity of the advection, $f(t,u)$ is a Fisher-KPP type of nonlinearity, $T$-periodic in $t$, $g(t)$ and $h(t)$ are two free boundaries satisfying Stefan conditions. This equation can be used to describe the population dynamics in time-periodic environment with advection. Its homogeneous version (that is, both $β$ and $f$ are independent of $t$) was recently studied by Gu, Lou and Zhou \cite{GLZ}. In this paper we consider the time-periodic case and study the long time behavior of the solutions. We show that a vanishing-spreading dichotomy result holds when $β$ is small; a vanishing-transition-virtual spreading trichotomy result holds when $β$ is a medium-sized function; all solutions vanish when $β$ is large. Here the partition of $β(t)$ is much more complicated than the case when $β$ is a real number, since it depends not only on the "size" $\barβ:= \frac{1}{T}\int_0^T β(t) dt$ of $β(t)$ but also on its "shape" $\tildeβ(t) := β(t) - \barβ$.

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arXiv2015

A KPP road-field system with spatially periodic exchange terms

We take interest in a reaction-diffusion system which has been recently proposed [11] as a model for the effect of a road on propagation phenomena arising in epidemiology and ecology. This system consists in coupling a classical Fisher-KPP equation in a half-plane with a line with fast diffusion accounting for a straight road. The effect of the line on spreading properties of solutions (with compactly supported initial data) was investigated in a series of works starting from [11]. We recover these earlier results in a more general spatially periodic framework by exhibiting a threshold for road diffusion above which the propagation is driven by the road and the global speed is accelerated. We also discuss further applications of our approach, which will rely on the construction of a suitable generalized principal eigenvalue, and investigate in particular the spreading of solutions with exponentially decaying initial data.

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arXiv2015

Semi-wave and spreading speed for the diffusive competition model with a free boundary

We determine the asymptotic spreading speed of an invasive species, which invades the territory of a native competitor, governed by a diffusive competition model with a free boundary in a spherically symmetric setting. This free boundary problem was studied recently in [7] but only rough bounds of the spreading speed was obtained there. We show in this paper that the spreading speed has an asymptotic limit (as time goes to infnity), which is given by a certain traveling wave type system of one space dimension, called a semi-wave. This appears to be the first result that gives the precise asymptotic spreading speed for a two species system with free boundaries.

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arXiv2015

Long time behavior of solutions of Fisher-KPP equation with advection and free boundaries

We consider Fisher-KPP equation with advection: $u_t=u_{xx}-βu_x+f(u)$ for $x\in (g(t),h(t))$, where $g(t)$ and $h(t)$ are two free boundaries satisfying Stefan conditions. This equation is used to describe the population dynamics in advective environments. We study the influence of the advection coefficient $-β$ on the long time behavior of the solutions. We find two parameters $c_0$ and $β^*$ with $β^*>c_0>0$ which play key roles in the dynamics, here $c_0$ is the minimal speed of the traveling waves of Fisher-KPP equation. More precisely, by studying a family of the initial data $\{ σϕ\}_{σ>0}$ (where $ϕ$ is some compactly supported positive function), we show that, (1) in case $β\in (0,c_0)$, there exists $σ^*\geqslant0$ such that spreading happens when $σ> σ^*$ and vanishing happens when $σ\in (0,σ^*]$; (2) in case $β\in (c_0,β^*)$, there exists $σ^*>0$ such that virtual spreading happens when $σ>σ^*$ (i.e., $u(t,\cdot;σϕ)\to 0$ locally uniformly in $[g(t),\infty)$ and $u(t,\cdot + ct;σϕ)\to 1$ locally uniformly in $\R$ for some $c>β-c_0$), vanishing happens when $σ\in (0,σ^*)$, and in the transition case $σ=σ^*$, $u(t, \cdot+o(t);σϕ)\to V^*(\cdot-(β-c_0)t )$ uniformly, the latter is a traveling wave with a "big head" near the free boundary $x=(β-c_0)t$ and with an infinite long "tail" on the left; (3) in case $β= c_0$, there exists $σ^*>0$ such that virtual spreading happens when $σ> σ^*$ and $u(t,\cdot;σϕ)\to 0$ uniformly in $[g(t),h(t)]$ when $σ\in (0,σ^*]$; (4) in case $β\geqslant β^*$, vanishing happens for any solution.

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arXiv2015

Nonlinear diffusion problems with free boundaries: Convergence, transition speed and zero number arguments,

This paper continues the investigation of Du and Lou (J. European Math Soc, to appear), where the long-time behavior of positive solutions to a nonlinear diffusion equation of the form $u_t=u_{xx}+f(u)$ for $x$ over a varying interval $(g(t), h(t))$ was examined. Here $x=g(t)$ and $x=h(t)$ are free boundaries evolving according to $g'(t)=-μu_x(t, g(t))$, $h'(t)=-μu_x(t,h(t))$, and $u(t, g(t))=u(t,h(t))=0$. We answer several intriguing questions left open in the paper of Du and Lou.First we prove the conjectured convergence result in the paper of Du and Lou for the general case that $f$ is $C^1$ and $f(0)=0$. Second, for bistable and combustion types of $f$, we determine the asymptotic propagation speed of $h(t)$ and $g(t)$ in the transition case. More presicely, we show that when the transition case happens, for bistable type of $f$ there exists a uniquely determined $c_1>0$ such that $\lim_{t\to\infty} h(t)/\ln t=\lim_{t\to\infty} -g(t)/\ln t=c_1$, and for combustion type of $f$, there exists a uniquely determined $c_2>0$ such that $\lim_{t\to\infty} h(t)/\sqrt t=\lim_{t\to\infty} -g(t)/\sqrt t=c_2$. Our approach is based on the zero number arguments of Matano and Angenent, and on the construction of delicate upper and lower solutions.

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arXiv2014

Long time behavior of solutions of a reaction-diffusion equation on unbounded intervals with Robin boundary conditions

We study the long time behavior, as $t\to\infty$, of solutions of $$ \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} u_t = u_{xx} + f(u), & x>0, \ t >0,\\ u(0,t) = b u_x(0,t), & t>0,\\ u(x,0) = u_0 (x)\geqslant 0 , & x\geqslant 0, \end{array} \right. $$ where $b\geqslant 0$ and $f$ is an unbalanced bistable nonlinearity. By investigating families of initial data of the type $\{ σϕ\}_{σ>0}$, where $ϕ$ belongs to an appropriate class of nonnegative compactly supported functions, we exhibit the sharp threshold between vanishing and spreading. More specifically, there exists some value $σ^*$ such that the solution converges uniformly to 0 for any $0 < σ< σ^*$, and locally uniformly to a positive stationary state for any $ σ> σ^*$. In the threshold case $σ= σ^*$, the profile of the solution approaches the symmetrically decreasing ground state with some shift, which may be either finite or infinite. In the latter case, the shift evolves as $C \ln t$ where~$C$ is a positive constant we compute explicitly, so that the solution is traveling with a pulse-like shape albeit with an asymptotically zero speed. Depending on $b$, but also in some cases on the choice of the initial datum, we prove that one or both of the situations may happen.

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