An \(N\)-barrier maximum principle for elliptic systems arising from the study of traveling waves in reaction-diffusion systems (Q1671097)

The authors consider the following boundary value problem for elliptic systems \[ \begin{cases} d_1 u_{xx}+\theta u_x+u(\sigma_1-c_{11}u-c_{12}v)=0, \;\;x\in \mathbb{R}\\ d_2 v_{xx}+\theta v_x+v(\sigma_2-c_{21}u-c_{22}v)=0, \;\;x\in \mathbb{R}\\ (u,v)(-\infty)=(\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{11}},0), \;\;(u,v)(-\infty)=\left(\frac{c_{22}\sigma_1-c_{12}\sigma_2}{c_{11}c_{22}-c_{12}c_{21}}, \frac{c_{11}\sigma_2-c_{21}\sigma_1}{c_{11}c_{22}-c_{12}c_{21}}\right) \end{cases}\tag{1} \] which arises when one looks for traveling wave solutions of a diffusive Lotka-Volterra system of two competing species. The parameters involved in system are assumed positive. They represent: \(d_1,d_2\) the diffusion rates, \(\sigma_1,\sigma_2\) the intrinsic growth rates, \(c_{11},c_{22}\) the intra-specific competition rates, \(c_{12},c_{21}\) inter-specific competition rates, and \(\theta\) the propagation speed of the traveling wave. The main result of this paper is a \(N\)-barrier maximum principle for positive solutions of system \((1)\) which holds under one of following conditions \((S)\) and \((W)\) (which correspond to the strong competition and the weak competition, respectively): \[ \begin{cases} (S) \;\;\;&\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{11}}>\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{21}} \;\;\text{and} \;\;\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{2}}>\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{12}}, \\ (W) \;\;\;&\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{11}}<\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{21}} \;\;\text{and} \;\;\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{2}}<\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{12}}. \end{cases} \] In particular, under condition \((S)\) or \((W)\), the authors prove that for every positive solution \((u,v)\) of \((1)\) and for every \(\alpha,\beta>0\), one has \[ q_*\leq \alpha u(x)+\beta v(x)\leq q^*, \;\;x\in \mathbb{R}, \] where \[ \begin{aligned} q_* & =\min\left[\alpha\min\left[\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{11}},\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{21}}\right],\beta\min\left[\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{22}},\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{12}}\right] \right]\min\left[\frac{d_1}{d_2},\frac{d_1}{d_2}\right],\\ q_* & =\max\left[\alpha\max\left[\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{11}},\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{21}}\right],\beta\max\left[\frac{\sigma_2}{c_{22}},\frac{\sigma_1}{c_{12}}\right] \right]\max\left[\frac{d_1}{d_2},\frac{d_1}{d_2}\right]. \end{aligned} \] The \(N\)-barrier maximum principle is then applied to establish existence/non existence of traveling wave solutions for systems of three competing species. Moreover, for these systems, the authors find an exact traveling wave solution under suitable additional conditions on the coefficients.