Generalized travelling coordinate for systems of reaction-diffusion equations (Q4948771)

The authors study systems of the form \(u_t= au_{xx}+ F(u)\), \(x\in\mathbb{R}\), \(u\in\mathbb{R}^m\), where \(a\) is a positive symmetric matrix. A travelling wave solution \(w\) then satisfies \(w_t= aw_{zz}+ cw_z+ F(w)\) for some constant \(c\). They generalize the concept of wave speed \(c\) by using a nonlinear functional \[ c(w)=-{1\over m} \sum^m_{i= 1}{1\over w_{i+}- w_{i-}} \int^\infty_{-\infty} F_i(w) dz, \] where \(w_{\pm}= \lim_{z\to\pm\infty} w(z)\). They use a travelling coordinate \(z= x- \int^t_0 c(w(z, \tau)) d\tau\). They apply their approach in a number of interesting examples.