A Lotka-Volterra symbiotic model with cross-diffusion (Q1007272)

In this paper the following elliptic population model is considered: \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u=u(\lambda-u+bv) & \text{ in }\Omega,\\ -\Delta [(1+\beta u)v]=v(\mu-v+cu) & \text{ in }\Omega,\\ u, v=0 & \text{ on } \partial \Omega. \end{cases} \] Here \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^N\) (\(N\geq 1\)), \(\beta, b,c>0\), and \(\lambda,\mu\) are real parameters representing the growth rates of two interacting species \(u\) and \(v\) respectively. This is a Lotka-Volterra symbiotic system with cross-diffusion. The cross-diffusion parameter \(\beta\) describes the interference of the population \(u\) into \(v\). While competition and predator-prey models with cross-diffusion are relatively well studied, symbiotic models are not. By using bifurcation methods and a priori bounds, the authors are able to supply sufficient conditions for the existence of positive solutions.