Wave propagation in an infectious disease model (Q504904)

This is an interesting paper which deals with the study of the wave propagation in the reaction-convection infectious disease model of the form \[ \begin{aligned} S_t(t,x)=D_SS_{xx}(t,x)+\mu-dS(t,x)-rI(t,x)S(t,x), \\ I_t(t,x)=D_tI_{xx}(t,x)-\beta I(t,x)+\epsilon\int_{-\infty}^{+\infty}f_{\alpha}(x-y)I(t-\tau,y)S(t-\tau,y)dy,\end{aligned} \] suggested by \textit{J. Li} and \textit{X. Zou} [Bull. Math. Biol. 71, No. 8, 2048--2079 (2009; Zbl 1180.92080)]. The functions \(S\) and \(I\) are the densities of the susceptible and infective individuals, \(D_S\) and \(D_I\) are the corresponding diffusion rates, \(d\) is the death rate, \(r\) is the infection rate, the delay \(\tau\) represents the latency length of the infective disease and the kernel function \(f_{\alpha}(x)\) is defined by \(\frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi\alpha}}e^{-x^2/4\alpha}.\) The other items in the system represent constant factors affecting the evolution. The system is transformed to \[ \begin{aligned} S_t(t,x)=dS_{xx}(t,x)+\mu(1-S(t,x))-rI(t,x)S(t,x), \\ I_t(t,x)=I_{xx}(t,x)-\beta I(t,x)+k\int_{-\infty}^{+\infty}f_{\alpha}(x-y)I(t-\tau,y)S(t-\tau,y)dy,\end{aligned}\eqno{(\ast)} \] for which the following result is given in Theorem 2.1: There exists some \(c^*>0,\) such that for \(c>c^*,\) system (*) has a nonnegative traveling wave solution \((S(t,x),I(t,x))=(S(x+ct),I(x+ct))\) such that (i) \(0<S(t)<1\) and \(I(t)>0\); (ii) \(\lim_{t\to-\infty}(S(t),I(t))=(1,0),\) \(\lim_{t\to+\infty}(S(t),I(t))=(S^*,I^*),\) i.e., the traveling wave solution connects the disease-free equilibrium \(E^0(1,0)\) and the endemic equilibrium \(E^*(S^*,I^*)\), where \(S^*:=\frac{\beta}{k}\) and \(I^*:=\frac{\mu}{r}(\frac{k}{\beta}-1)\); (iii) \(\lim_{t\to-\infty}I(t)e^{-\lambda_1t}=1,\) and \(\lim_{t\to-\infty}(S'(t),I'(t))=\lim_{t\to+\infty}(S'(t),I'(t))=(0,0).\) Here \(\lambda_1\) is the smallest (positive) root of the algebraic equation \(\lambda^2-c\lambda-\beta+ke^{\alpha\lambda^2-\lambda c\tau}=0.\) The method relies on an iterative process which uses a pair of upper and lower solutions.