Diffusion in an annihilating environment (Q2490076)

A system of reaction-diffusion equations with a delta source at the origin is studied. This system describes a continuum version of a model in which particles are injected at the origin at rate \(\lambda\), perform independent symmetric random walks on \(\mathbb{Z}^d\), and are annihilated at rate 1 by traps located at the sites of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\) in such a way that the trap disappears with the particle. As time \(t\) increases the particle density inflates and the trap density deflates on a growing ball with radius \(R_*(t)\) centered at the origin. Sharp asymptotics of the front position \(R_*(t)\) are derived, and the shape of the trap density near the front is identified. Scaling limits of the particle density inside the ball are derived. Asymptotics of the total number and the age distribution of alive particles are derived. Essentially all asymptotic results known for the random discrete model are recovered, and new results provided. It turns out that the cases \(d \geq 3\), \(d=2\) and \(d=1\) exhibit different behavior.