Rotating spirals in segregated reaction-diffusion systems (Q7007481)

The authors consider a multi-species competition-diffusion system on the unit disk in the singular limit of infinite interspecific competition, leading to a free boundary problem. The system shares two special features: equal diffusion rates and linear growth. They address the existence and uniqueness of (rigidly-rotating) spiral waves (i.e., non-radial positive solutions) by prescribing segregation-type boundary conditions. It is worth noting that classical bifurcation theory may not be applicable in the singular limit; see [\textit{Z. Li} and \textit{S. Terracini}, J. Differ. Equations 426, 853--875 (2025; Zbl 1561.35024)] for comparison.\N\NA key step is to transform the free boundary problem from a punctured disk (where the origin corresponds to the spiral tip) to an elliptic PDE on the upper half-plane via a conformal map. Under this transformation, the parameter that measures how symmetric the competition coefficients are becomes a rotation number in the boundary conditions on the angular variable. A Fourier expansion on the angular variable then reduces the elliptic PDE to a second-order ODE for each Fourier mode. The existence and uniqueness of solutions are established via a non-resonance condition, using the Fredholm alternative and the Lax-Milgram theorem. This non-resonance condition is verified through a detailed analysis on the zeros of Bessel functions. Finally, the authors study the nodal set structure on the upper half-plane (which correspond to nodal sets on the original disk via a conformal map) and derive compatibility conditions for boundary data that ensure the existence of spiral wave.