Bifurcation of positive equilibria in nonlinear structured population models with varying mortality rates (Q628601)

A simple model describing the evolution of the population with initial distribution \(u^0=u^0(a,x)\geq 0\) is considered: \[ \partial_tu+\partial_au=\operatorname{div}_x(D(U(t,x),a)\nabla_xu)-\overline{\mu}(U(t,x),a)u,\quad t>0,\quad a\in J,\quad x\in\Omega, \] \[ u(t,0,x)=\int\limits_0^{a_m}b(U(t,x),a)u(a)da,\quad t>0, x\in\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n, \] \[ \delta u(t,a,x)+(1-\delta)\partial_{\nu}u(t,a,x)=0,\quad t>0,\quad a\in J,\quad x\in\partial\Omega, \] where \(u=u(t,a,x)\geq 0\) is the distribution density at time \(t\geq 0\) of individuals of a population structured by age \(a\in J=[0,a_m]\) and spatial position \(x\in\Omega\), \(a_m\in (0,\infty)\) denotes the maximal age, \(\Omega\) is a bounded and smooth domain, either \(\delta=1\) or \(\delta=0\) corresponding to Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. The presented approach is based on introducing a parameter \(\lambda\), measuring the intensity of the mortality without changing its structure. The author considers parameter-dependent death rates of the form \(\overline{\mu}=\lambda\mu(U,a)\) with \(\mu=\mu(U,a)\) being a fixed reference function. The main goal is to establish existence of nontrivial nonnegative solutions \(u=u(a,x)\) to the relevant parameter-dependent problem. Under suitable assumptions the author proves that the theorem of Crandall-Rabinowitz applies so that there is a unique value \(\lambda_0>0\) for which a nontrivial branch \(\{(\lambda,u_{\lambda}): |\lambda-\lambda_0|\) small\(\}\) bifurcates from the trivial branch \(\{(\lambda,0):\lambda\in \mathbb R\}\) at the critical point \((\lambda_0,0)\) and that at least one part of the nontrivial branch near the critical point consists of nonnegative solutions. The author indicates that the proved theorem is merely a consequence of the more general theorem that includes nonlinear elliptic operators not necessarily in divergence form.