Convergence to generalized transition waves for some Holling-Tanner prey-predator reaction-diffusion system (Q385975)

This paper contains an interesting example of the spreading speed analysis in a reaction-diffusion system. Spreading properties of compactly supported initial conditions in scalar equations such as the Fisher-KPP equation are well studied. The situation in systems can be more complicated and interesting. This paper studies spreading speed property in Holling-Tanner predator-prey model using its relation to the spreading speed property in Fisher-KPP equation. Holling-Tanner model is the system of the following nonlinearly coupled pdes, \[ \partial_t u - d \Delta u = u (1-u) -\Pi(u) v, \] \[ \partial_t v - \Delta v =rv(1-\frac{v}{u}), \] with \(t>0\) and \(x\in\mathbb R^n\). Here \(u\) describes the population of a prey, \(v\) describes the population of the predator, and \(\Pi(u)\) is the functional response to the predation. Parameter \(d>0\) is the normalized diffusivity of the prey, and \(r>0\) is the growth rate of the predator. The author considers initial conditions which correspond to the introduction of a compactly supported \(v_0\) (predator) at the time when \(u_0\) (prey) is uniformly well distributed. Under some general assumptions on \(\Pi(u)\), a result describing long time evolution of such initial conditions is obtained that shows that the spreading speed is linearly determinate. The proof is based on obtaining appropriate asymptotic estimates by using strong comparison principle and invoking properties of the scalar Fisher-KPP equation. For the same system posed on the one-dimensional space, more refined results are obtained under stronger assumptions on \(\Pi(u)\), including an asymptotic formula for quantity that describes spreading of the predator. A further assumption on \(\Pi(u)\) is made that guarantees the existence of a stationary state different from \((u,v)=(1,0)\). Under this assumption the author studies the relation of the entire solution generated by initial conditions of the type described above with the generalized transition waves in the sense of Berestycki and Hamel.