\(S\)-shaped global bifurcation curve and Hopf bifurcation of positive solutions to a predator-prey model (Q1265079)

Consider the elliptic boundary value problem \((*)\) \( \Delta u + u(a-u-bv/(1+mu)) = 0, \;\Delta v + v(d-v+cu/(1+mu)) = 0, \;u=v=0 \text{ on } \partial D\) in a bounded domain \(D\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) with smooth boundary \(\partial D\), and \(a,b,c,d,m\) are positive constants. The main concern is to study the number of positive solutions of \((*)\) and their stability. It is shown that if \(b,d,c\) and \(m\) belong to some regions, then the solution set \(\{(u,v,a)\}\) of \((*)\) form a \(S\)-shaped smooth curve, and Hopf bifurcations occurs along this curve. These results confirm numerical observations with respect to \((*)\) obtained in a former paper [\textit{A. Casal, J. C. Eilbeck} and \textit{J. López-Gómez}, Differ. Integral Equ. 7, No.~2, 411-439 (1994; Zbl 0823.35050)].