Traveling waves for a biological reaction-diffusion model (Q1768371)

The existence of a travelling wave solution for a given system of reaction-diffusion equations is reduced to the resolution of the system \[ \rho\ddot S = (c+\alpha)\dot S+f(S)P,\qquad \ddot P = (c+\alpha)\dot P+ [K-f(S)]P, \] with the boundary conditions \(S(+\infty)=S_0, S(-\infty)=S^0>S_0,P(-\infty)=P(+\infty)=0\). This is a model for microbial growth and for the diffusive epidemic population. This problem was solved for small diffusion coefficient \(\rho\) in a recent paper by H. L. Smith and X. Q. Zhao and for a general \(\rho\) and \(f(S)=\beta S\) in a work by \textit{Y. Hosono} and \textit{B. Ilyas} [Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 5, No. 7, 935--966 (1995; Zbl 0836.92023)]. This paper fills this gap and proves the existence of a connecting orbit without imposing conditions on \(\rho\) and with mild conditions on \(f\). The technique of proof combines a shooting method with an adequate Lyapunov function.