A nonlinear boundary value problem arising from competition in the chemostat (Q583154)

The authors study the equation of a non-well-mixed chemostat, that is, one in which the nutrients and organisms diffuse throughout the culture vessel. The model has the form \[ S_ t=S_{xx}-m_ 1Su/(a_ 1+S)- m_ 2Sv/(a_ 2+S), \] \[ u_ t=u_{xx}+m_ 1Su/(a_ 1+S),\quad v_ t=v_{xx}+m_ 2Sv/(a_ 2+S), \] \[ S_ x(t,0)=-S^{(0)},\quad u_ x(t,0)=v_ x(t,0)=0,\quad S_ x(t,1)+\gamma S(t,1)=0, \] \[ u_ x(t,1)+\gamma u(t,1)=0,\quad v_ x(t,1)+\gamma v(t,1)=0 \] \[ S(0,x)=S_ 0(x)\geq 0,\quad u(0,x)=u_ 0(x)\geq 0,\quad v(0,x)=v_ 0(x)\geq 0. \] Here S is the nutrient concentration, u and v are the biomasses of two competing populations, and \(S^{(0)}\) is the input concentration of nutrient. The nonlinearities have Michaelis-Menten form consistent with experimental evidence. Without the presence of diffusion the system exhibits competitive exclusion, that is only one competitor survives. The authors prove that with diffusion there is the possibility of a steady state in the interior of the positive cone. The proof involves two bifurcations from simple eigenvalues. The stability of the steady states is noted as an outstanding problem. Some numerical results are presented to illustrate the range of coexistence parameter values.