Bifurcation of reaction-diffusion systems: Application to epidemics of many species (Q1978816)

The following reaction-diffusion systems describing the spread of several bacterial infections among many interacting species are considered: \[ \begin{gathered} \frac{\partial u_i}{\partial t} - \Delta u_i + a_i(x)u_i = \sum_{j=1}^m b_{ij} v_j \quad \text{for } x \in \Omega,\;i=1,\dots n, \\ \frac{\partial v_k}{\partial t} - \Delta v_k + \widetilde a_k(x)v_k = \sum_{j=1}^n f_{kj} (u_j) + v_k \sum_{j=1}^m c_{kj} v_j \quad \text{for } x \in \Omega,\;k=1,\dots m, \\ u_i = v_k = 0 \quad \text{for } x \in \partial \Omega,\;i=1,\dots n,\;k=1,\dots m. \end{gathered} \] Here \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^N\), \(b_{ij}>0\), \(c_{kj} \in \mathbb{R}\), \(f_{kj} \in C^1(\mathbb{R})\), \(a_{i}(x)\), \(\widetilde a_{k}(x)\) are positive. The functions \(u_i\) represent \(n\) different kinds of bacterial population densities, \(v_k\) represent \(m\) different-type infected-species population densities. Conditions concerning the growth, infection, and interaction rates are obtained under which positive steady states can exist. Bifurcation methods are used for the proof of the existence of positive steady states. The stability of steady states is studied by using a semigroup method.