On the nonnegativity of solutions of reaction diffusion equations (Q1100345)

Consider the system of reaction diffusion equations \[ \partial u/\partial t=A\Delta u+f(u,\nabla_ xu,x,t)\quad (*) \] where A is a \(p\times p\) matrix, u(x,t) is a p-dimensional vector with components \(u^{(j)}(x,t)\), \(j=1,...,p\) and where \((x,t)\in {\mathbb{R}}^ n\times (0,\infty)\). Motivated by phenomena modeled by (*) in which off-diagonal entries of the matrix A are specifically included, we study the circumstances under which solutions of the initial boundary value problem for (*) in \(\Omega \times (0,T)\) (\(\Omega\) a bounded domain) with either homogeneous Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions holding on \(\partial \Omega \times (0,T)\), have the property that starting out from nonnegative initial data, they will remain nonnegative for all subsequent times. For the simplest equation modeling multicomponent diffusion which corresponds to \(f\equiv 0: \partial u/\partial t = A\Delta u\) with A a constant positive definite matrix, we show that the property of persistence of nonnegativity for solutions cannot hold unless the off- diagonal entries of A are not present. To obtain a result assuring the persistence of nonnegativity with the off-diagonal entries \(a_{jk}\) of A present, we assume that these entries depend on u and \(\nabla_ xu\) as follows: \(a_{jk} = u^{(j)}\alpha_{jk}(u,\nabla_ xu,x,t)\), \((j\neq k)\) while the diagonal entries are assumed to be positive and f is suitably structured. This result is applicable to the equations used by Keller and Segel to model slime mold aggregation; as well as to more sophisticated models for multicomponent diffusion accompanied by a reaction such as appear in the most general formulation of combustion theory.