Traveling wave solutions for a predator-prey system with sigmoidal response function (Q657755)

The authors study the following reaction-diffusion predator-prey system \[ \begin{aligned} \frac{\partial N_1}{\partial t}&=D_1\frac{\partial^2 N_1}{\partial x^2}+rN_1(1-\frac{N_1}{K})-\frac{N_1^2N_2}{a_1+b_1N_1+N_1^2},\\ \frac{\partial N_2}{\partial t}&=D_2\frac{\partial^2 N_2}{\partial x^2}+\frac{\alpha N_1^2N_2}{a_1+b_1N_1+N_1^2}-eN_2, \end{aligned}\tag{1} \] where \(N_1(x,t)\) and \(N_2(x,t)\) represent the densities of the prey and the predator populations at time \(t\) and location \(x\), respectively. The parameters \( a_1, b_1, e, r, K, D_1, D_2\) and \(\alpha\) are positive constants. System (1) is governed by a sigmoidal response function which in some applications is more realistic than the Holling type I, II responses, and more general than a simplified form of the Holling type III response before. The method used here is an improvement on the original method introduced in the work of \textit{S. R. Dunbar} [J. Math. Biol. 17, 11--32 (1983; Zbl 0509.92024); SIAM J. Appl. Math. 46, 1057--1078 (1986; Zbl 0617.92020)]. A bounded Ważewski set is used in this work. The existence of traveling wave solutions connecting two equilibria is established by using the original Ważewski's theorem which is much simpler than the extended version in Dunbar's work.