A geometric approach in the study of traveling waves for some classes of non-monotone reaction-diffusion systems (Q897796)

Consider a non-monotone reaction-diffusion system \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}=d_1\Delta u+F(u,v), \quad \frac{\partial v}{\partial t}=d_1\Delta v+G(u,v) \] with \(d_1>0\), \(d_2>0\), which has an unstable boundary equilibrium \(E_K=(K,0)\). In this article, the author introduces a concept of ``semi-traveling wave solution'' which is a traveling wave solution \((u(x,t),v(x,t))=(U(x\cdot \nu+ ct),V(x\cdot \nu+ ct))\) of the system satisfying \((U(-\infty),V(-\infty))=E_K\). The main work in this article is to establish the existence and to identify the minimal wave speed of semi-traveling wave solutions under mild assumptions. As applications, the author further considers some concrete models such as the Beddinton-DeAngelis model and the model of biological flow reactor, and shows the limit \((U(\infty),V(\infty))\) of semi-traveling waves to be a positive equilibrium \(E_*\) (if \(E_*\) exists), or another boundary equilibrium point of the model. The method in this article is the development of a geometric approach used in [the author, J. Dyn. Differ. Equations 24, No. 3, 633--644 (2012; Zbl 1365.35056)] for a prey-predator system with \(d_1=0\). In this approach, the homotopy invariance on the fundamental group is used instead of Wezarwisk's invariance principle.