Non-linear determinacy of minimum wave speed for a Lotka-Volterra competition model (Q635430)

In this paper, the authors study the following classical diffusive Lotka-Volterra competition model \[ \begin{aligned} u_t=&d_1\Delta u+r_1u(1-b_{11}u-b_{12}v),\\ v_t=&d_2\Delta v+r_2v(1-b_{21}v-b_{22}u), \end{aligned}\tag{1} \] where \(u(x,t)\) and \(v(x,t)\) denote the population densities of the species \(u\) and \(v\) at a position \(x\in R^n\) and time \(t\), and \(\Delta\) is the Laplace operator. For \(i=1,2\), \(d_i\) and \(r_i\) are diffusion coefficients and linear birth rates; \(1/b_{i1}\) are carrying capacities; and \(b_{i2}\) are competition coefficients for species \(u\) and \(v\), respectively. If the system (1) has one stable boundary equilibrium and one unstable boundary equilibrium, it is well known that there exists a positive number \(c^*\), called the minimum wave speed, such that, for each \(c\geq c^*\), system (1) has a positive traveling wave solution of wave speed \(c\) connecting these two equilibria if and only if \(c\geq c^*\). It has been conjectured by \textit{J.D. Murray} [Mathematical biology. Berlin etc.: Springer (1989; Zbl 0682.92001)] and \textit{S. Okubo} et al. [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B. 238, 113--125 (1989)] that the minimum wave speed can be determined by studying the eigenvalues of the unstable equilibrium, called the linear determinacy. The authors show that the conjecture on the linear determinacy is not true in general.