Generalized travelling waves for perturbed monotone reaction-diffusion systems (Q5953903)

The Cauchy problem for the parabolic system \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}=D\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x^2}+f(u)+\lambda g(u,x),\quad x\in {\mathbb R},\;t\geq 0,\tag{1} \] \[ u(x,0)=u_0(x),\tag{2} \] is considered, where \(u=(u_1,u_2,\dots,u_n),\;f=(f_1,f_2,\dots,f_n),g=(g_1,g_2,\dots,g_n)\), \(\lambda \) is a positive parameter, and \(f(u)\) satisfies: \[ f(u_+)=f(u_-)=0,\quad u_+<u_-\text{ (the inequality is understood componentwise}), \] \[ \frac{\partial f_i(u)}{\partial u_j}\geq 0,\;i,j=1,2,\dots,n,\;i\neq j,\;u\in B_K:=\{u|\;u_+-K\leq u\leq u_-+K\},\tag{3} \] \(f(u)\in C^2(B_K)\), \(K\) is a small positive number. Assume that \(g(u,x)\) is continuous and bounded uniformly in \(x\) together with its first derivative with respect to \(x\) and second derivatives with respect to \(u_i\). If \(\lambda=0\), the travelling wave is a solution of the form \(u(x,t)=w(x-ct)\), where \(w(x)\) satisfies \[ Dw''+cw'+f(w)=0,\quad w(\pm \infty)=u_{\pm}.\tag{4} \] The existence and stability of the travelling waves for the above monotone parabolic system (1)-(3) are known. In this paper, the authors study the existence of generalized travelling waves for the perturbed monotone system for \(\lambda>0\). They consider the bistable case (\(f'(u_+)\) and \(f'(u_-)\) have all eigenvalues in the left half-plane). Under the assumption of irreducibility condition (if all its elements of the matrix \(f'(w(x))\) are replaced by their \(C\)-norms, then this numerical matrix is irreducible), they showed that for small \(\lambda\) there exist solutions of the Cauchy problem (1)-(2) with the form \(u(x,t)=w(x-q(t))+\lambda v(x,q(t)),\) where \(|v|\) is bounded. If \(c\) is the speed of the unperturbed wave, the function \(q(t)\) is a solution of the ODE \[ \frac{dq}{dt}=c-\lambda \Phi(q,\lambda)\tag{5} \] where \(\Phi(q,\lambda)=\Phi^o(q)+O(\lambda),\) and the principal term of this expression \(\Phi^o\) is found explicitly. The large time behaviour of solutions of (5) can be described completely. If the irreducibility condition is not satisfied, the generalized travelling waves can have more complex structure. In the generic situation, solutions of (5) may not exist. Instead of them, the authors consider solutions \(u(x,t)=v(t,q_1(t),\dots,q_n(t)),\) where \(q_i(t)\) satisfy a complex dynamics system \(\frac{dq_i}{dt}=c_i-\lambda\Phi_i(q,\lambda)\), \(i=1,2,\dots,n.\) This dynamics depends on the perturbation \(g(u,x)\) and there can exist periodic (for \(n\geq 2\)) and even chaotic (for \(n\geq 3\)) solutions. In particular, they showed that generalized travelling waves can have the chaotic behavior similar to that described by the Lorentz system. The results in this paper developed the ideas suggested in [\textit{S. A. Vakulenko}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 19, 1033-1046 (1992; Zbl 0801.35042), and with \textit{P. V. Gordon}, Theor. Math. Phys. 112, 1104-1112 (1997); translation from Teor. Mat. Fiz. 112, 384-394 (1997; Zbl 0968.35514)].