On the ``Traveling pulses'' of the limit of the FitzHugh-Nagumo equation when \(\varepsilon \to 0\) (Q6158297)

Consider the existence of traveling pulses for the FitzHugh-Nagumo system \[ u_t =u_{xx}+u(u-a)(1-u) +w, \quad w_t=\varepsilon(u-\gamma w) \] in case \(\varepsilon =0 \). This problem is equivalent to the existence of homoclinic orbits of the planar autonomous system \[ \frac{dx}{ds} = y, \quad \frac{dy}{ds} =-cy-x(x-a)(1-x)+w \tag{1} \] where \(c\) is the speed of the pulse, \(a\) and \(w\) are real parameters. The authors determine the phase potrait of system (1) in the Poincaré disc for different parameter values by investigating the equilibria of (1) at infinity.