Existence and stability of traveling pulses in a reaction-diffusion-mechanics system (Q1941058)

The authors derive a reaction-diffusion-mechanics system, modelling the interaction of a deformable tissue with a FitzHugh-Nagumo voltage model. This model is based on one by Panfilov, Keldermann and Nash; a more recent paper on this is [\textit{R. H. Keldermann} et al., Physica D 238, No. 11--12, 1000--1007 (2009; Zbl 1165.92006)]. Mathematically, the model is a scalar quasilinear reaction diffusion equation coupled to an ODE, which has a much slower time-scale. The authors prove the existence of travelling pulse-type solutions using geometric singular perturbation theory for the limiting time scale separation. These pulses have non-zero speed with an explicit leading order form and spatially connect the zero solution to a deformed equilibrium state. While this suggests an analogy to the classical results by Jones on the FitzHugh-Nagumo equations, here the existence proof is complicated by a degeneracy in the spatial dynamical system. This is dealt with by geometric desingularization (blow-up). The second half of the paper is devoted to study and prove spectral stability of the pulses, using exponential dichotomies.