Mathematics of traveling waves in chemotaxis (Q1948819)

The existence and non-existence of traveling wave solutions \((u,v)\) of the form \((u,v)(x,t) = (U,V)(x-ct)\) with \(U(\pm\infty)=u_\pm\), \(V(\pm\infty) = v_\pm\), \(U'(\pm\infty) = V'(\pm\infty)=0\), to the following chemotaxis system \[ \begin{align*}{ \partial_t u & = \partial_x \left( d \partial_x u - \chi u \partial_x \log v \right), \quad x\in\mathbb{R}, \ t>0, \cr \partial_t v & = \varepsilon \partial_x^2 v + \beta v - u v^m, \quad x\in\mathbb{R} , \ t>0 , }\end{align*} \] are surveyed. Here the parameters \(d\), \(\chi\) are positive, \(\varepsilon\), \(m\) are non-negative, and \(\beta\in\mathbb{R}\), while the wave speed \(c\) is assumed to be non-negative. Necessary conditions on \(u_\pm\) and \(v_\pm\) for the existence of traveling waves include \(u_\pm v_\pm^m = \beta v_\pm\) and \(u_+ \left[ c - \chi (\log V)'(+\infty) \right] = u_- \left[ c - \chi (\log V)'(-\infty) \right]\). Denoting the latter quantity by \(C_0\), the case \(C_0=0\) turns out to be easier to investigate, and the existence and non-existence results obtained so far in that case cover nearly all values of \(\varepsilon\geq 0\), \(\beta\in \mathbb{R}\), and \(r:=(dm+\chi)/d\) (Section~3). Only the case \(\beta>0\) and \(r=1\) remains unsolved. Much less is known for \(C_0\neq 0\) and the available results are restricted to \(m=1\) and \(\varepsilon\geq 0\) sufficiently small (Section~4). The existence results are supplemented with the identification of the wave speed \(c\) (or the minimal wave speed) and monotonicity properties of the profiles \(U, V\) (Section~6). The stability of the traveling waves is also discussed in a few specific cases (Section~5). Finally quantitative estimates of the dependence of the traveling waves and the wave speed with respect to \(\varepsilon\) are given as \(\varepsilon\to 0\) (Section~7). The last section of the paper collects some open problems.