The effects of coupling on chemical wave propagation in quadratic and cubic autocatalysis with decay (Q1360620)

An initial-value problem on \(\{(x,t),- \infty<x< \infty,\;t\geq 0\}\), involving the dimensionless concentrations \(\alpha_1,\beta_1\) in a region I and \(\alpha_2,\beta_2\) in a region II of chemical species \(A,B\), respectively, is studied. The considered system of equations is: \[ {\partial\alpha_1 \over\partial t} ={\partial^2 \alpha_1\over \partial x^2}-\alpha_1\beta^n_1, \quad {\partial\beta_1 \over\partial t} ={\partial^2\beta_1 \over\partial x^2} +\alpha_1 \beta^n_1-k \beta^m_1 +\gamma (\beta_2- \beta_1), \] \[ {\partial\alpha_2 \over\partial t}= {\partial^2 \alpha_2 \over\partial x^2} -\alpha_2\beta^p,\quad {\partial\beta_2 \over\partial t}= {\partial^2 \beta_2 \over\partial x^2} +\alpha_2 \beta^p_2 +\gamma (\beta_1- \beta_2), \] where \(m,n,p=1\) or 2 and \(k,\gamma\) are some dimensionless parameters. The associated initial and boundary conditions are \(\alpha_i=1\), \(\beta_i=\beta_0^{(i)} h_i(x)\) at \(t=0\), \(-\infty< x<+\infty\), \(\alpha_i \to 1\), \(\beta_i \to 0\) as \(|x|\to\infty\), \(t>0\), \(i=1,2\), where \[ h_i(x)= \begin{cases} g_i(x), \quad & |x|<\sigma, \\ 0,\quad & |x|>\sigma, \end{cases} \] and where the functions \(g_i\) are continuous and differentiable on \(|x|<\sigma\) and have a maximum value of unity on this interval. The physical situation is that of relatively thin reaction zones (regions I and II), along which chemical species \(A\) and \(B\) are free to diffuse. The existence and uniqueness properties as well as the boundedness of the solutions are discussed.