Travelling waves for integro-differential equations in population dynamics (Q1019211)

Consider the following integro-differential equation arising from population dynamics: \[ {\partial u\over \partial t}={\partial^2u\over \partial x^2}+F(u,u*\varphi). \] Here \(u*\varphi\) is the convolution of the two functions and represents nonlocal consumption of the resources. A typical form for the reaction term \(F\) is \[ F(u,u*\varphi)=ku^2\left(1-\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\varphi(x-y)u(y,t)dy\right)-bu. \] The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of travelling wave solutions. When the support of \(\varphi\) is sufficiently small, the existence of travelling wave solutions is proved. When the support of \(\varphi\) is not necessarily small, numerical simulation is used. The travelling wave solution \(u(x,t)=w(x-ct)\) satisfies the equation \[ w''+cw'+F(w,w*\varphi)=0. \] Defining \(\varphi_{\varepsilon}(x)={1\over \varepsilon}\varphi({x\over \varepsilon})\), the authors show that under appropriate conditions on \(F\) and \(\varphi\), there exists some \(\varepsilon_0>0\) such that the equation \[ w''+cw'+F(w,w*\varphi_{\varepsilon})=0, \;w(-\infty)=0,w(+\infty)=1 \] has a solution \((w_{\varepsilon},c_{\varepsilon})\) for any \(|\varepsilon|<\varepsilon_0\).