Traveling waves in the nonlocal KPP-Fisher equation: different roles of the right and the left interactions (Q2634217)

The so called Kolmogorov-Petrovski-Piscunov equation (KPP-Fisher, in short) \[ u_t(t,x)=u_{xx}(t,x)+u(t,x)(1-(K\ast u)(t,x))\tag{(1)} \] describes the evolution of the population density \(u(t,x)\) at the time \(t\) and location \(x\). In this extended and very interesting work the authors investigate the existence and uniqueness of traveling waves \(u(t,x)=\phi(x+ct)\) depending on the quantities \(\alpha_-=\frac{1}{c}\int_0^{+\infty}sK(s)ds\) and \(\alpha_+=\frac{1}{c}\int_{-\infty}^0|s|K(s)ds\), and, of course, on the velocity-parameter \(c\). The non-locality is expressed in terms of the convolution of \(u(t, \cdot)\) with kernel a real non-negative function \(K\) with \(\int K(s)ds=1\). The cases \(K(s), s\geq 0\), and \(K(s), s\leq 0\), are responsible for interactions of an individual with his left and right neighbors, respectively. In head lines, it is shown that these two parts of the kernel \(K\) play quite different roles as for the existence and uniqueness of traveling fronts to the KPP-Fisher equation. In particular, if the left interaction is dominant, the uniqueness of fronts can be proved, while the dominance of the right interaction can induce the co-existence of monotone and oscillating fronts. The function \(\phi\) is \(C^2\)-smooth, non-negative satisfying \(\phi(-\infty)=0, \phi(+\infty)=1\). Here the second condition is replaced by \(0<\liminf_{+\infty}\phi\leq\limsup_{+\infty}\phi<+\infty\), which gives the so-called a \textit{semi-wavefront}. The first main result of the paper is given in Theorem 1: Assume that \(K\in L_1(\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{R})\), with \(\|K\|_1=1\). Then equation (1) has at least one semi-wavefront \(u(t,x)=\phi(x+ct)\) if and only if \(c\geq 2\). Moreover, if an a priori bound of a semi-wavefront \(\phi\) is known, then the conditions which guarantee that \(\phi\) is a wavefront are given in Theorem 2. For the specific equation \[ u_t(t,x)=u_{xx}(t,x)+u(t,x)(1-u(t+\tau,x)) \] Theorem 3 is proved: For each \(\tau>3\pi/2\) sufficiently close to \(3\pi/2\) there exist \(c_{\ast}(\tau) >2\) and an open subset \(\Omega\) of \(\mathbb{R}^3\) such that the KPP-Fisher equation with advanced argument \(u_t(t,x)=u_{xx}(t,x)+u(t,x)(1-u(t +\tau,x)), u\geq 0, x\in\mathbb{R}\), has a three-dimensional family \(u(t, x)=\phi(x+ct, \zeta, c), \zeta\in\Omega\), of wavefronts for each \(c>c_{\ast}(\tau)\). For every fixed \(c\), this family contains a unique (up to a translation) monotone wave-front and maps continuously and injectively into the space \(C_b(\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{R})\) of bounded continuous functions on \(\mathbb{R}\). Moreover, for each \(c>c_{\ast}(\tau)\), the above equation possesses proper semi-wavefronts \(u(t, x)=\psi(x+ct, c)\). The profiles \(\psi(\cdot, c)\) are asymptotically periodic at \(+\infty\), with \(\omega(c)\)-periodic limit functions \(\psi_{\infty}(\cdot, c)\) having periods \(\omega(c)\) close to \(2\pi c\) and of the sinusoidal form (i.e. each \(\psi_{\infty}(\cdot, c)\) oscillates around 1 and has exactly two critical points on the period interval \([0, \omega(c)))\). In addition to this result, it is noticed that this equation has a unique semi-wavefront, which actually is a monotone wavefront for each \(c\geq 2\) and \(\tau \in[-1/e, \tau_{\sharp})\), where \(\tau_{\sharp}:=4.60420\dots<\tau_0:=3\pi/2=4.71238\dots\).