Traveling waves for a diffusive SIR model with delay (Q892304)

This is an interesting paper dealing with an SIR epidemic model with a delay of the form \[ \begin{aligned} S_t(x,t)=d_SS_{xx}(x,t)+\mu(\Lambda-S(x,t))-F(S(x,t),I(x,t-\tau)),\\ I_t(x,t)=d_II_{xx}+F(S(x,t),I(x,t-\tau))-(\mu+\gamma)I(x,t),\\ R_t(x,t)=d_RR_{xx}(x,t)+\gamma)I(x,t)-\mu R(x,t),\end{aligned} \] where \[ F(S,I)=\frac{\beta SI}{1+\alpha I} \text{ and } g(\xi)=\frac{\xi}{1+\alpha \xi} \text{ with } \frac{\beta}{\gamma+\mu}>1. \] The infection free equilibrium of the system of the first two equations is (1,0), while the endemic equilibrium state of the system is given by \((s^*,i^*)=(\frac{\alpha\mu+\mu+\gamma}{\beta+\alpha\mu}, \frac{\mu(\beta-\mu-\gamma)}{(\mu+\gamma)(\beta+\alpha\mu)})\). Let \((S(x,t),I(x,t))=:(s(z),i(z)), \enskip z:=x+ct\) be a traveling wave solution of the system, which, now, can be written in the form \[ \begin{aligned} \delta s''(z)-cs'(z)+\mu(1-s(z))-\beta s(z)g(i(z-c\tau))=0,\\ i''(z)-ci'(z)+\beta s(z)g(i(z-c\tau))-(\mu+\gamma)i(z)=0.\end{aligned} \] Associate this system with the boundary conditions \((s,i)(-\infty)=(1,0)\) and \((s,i)(+\infty)=(s^*,i^*)\). The author proves that there exists a critical value \(c^*\) of the wave speed \(c\), such that a nonnegative solution of this boundary value problem exists if and only if \(c\geq c^*.\) Information about the bounds of \((s,i)\) and asymptotic behavior of \(i\) are also given. The results are obtained by constructing a pair of lower and upper solutions and then apply Schauder's fixed point theorem.