Phase plane analysis of travelling waves for higher order autocatalytic reaction-diffusion systems (Q2467618)

The autocatalytic reactions play an important role in various pattern formations in chemical systems with diffusion. These systems including the Brusselator, the Field-Noyes model and the Gray-Scott model have stimulated an extensive amount of theoretical studies on waves and patterns produced by chemical reactions, and one of the basic elements responsible for chemical pattern formation is traveling waves which describe the development of chemical processes. This paper investigates the existence of such traveling waves of the two component higher order autocatalytic reaction-diffusion systems via the phase plane analysis. Proof of the existence of traveling waves for the system without decay for two extreme cases, namely: the non-diffusive reactant and the equal diffusive cases are provided. The analysis is extended to the existence problem for the system with higher order decay when the reactant does not diffuse, and the estimate of the minimal propagation speeds in terms of the order of autocatalysis is given.