178 research outputs found
Neutral delay equations from and for population dynamics
For a certain class of neutral differential equations it is shown that these equations can serve as population models in the sense that they can be interpreted as special cases or caricatures of the standard Gurtin-MacCamy model for a population structured by age with birth and death rate depending on the total adult population. The delayed logistic equation does not belong to this class but the blowfly equation does. These neutral delay equations can be written as forward systems of an ordinary differential equation and a shift map. There are several quite distinct ways to perform the transformation to a system, either following a method of Hale or following more closely the renewal process. Similarly to the delayed logistic equation, the neutral equation (and the blowfly equation as a special case) exhibit periodic solutions, although only for a restricted range of parameters
Dual Fronts Propagating into an Unstable State
The interface between an unstable state and a stable state usually develops a
single confined front travelling with constant velocity into the unstable
state. Recently, the splitting of such an interface into {\em two} fronts
propagating with {\em different} velocities was observed numerically in a
magnetic system. The intermediate state is unstable and grows linearly in time.
We first establish rigorously the existence of this phenomenon, called ``dual
front,'' for a class of structurally unstable one-component models. Then we use
this insight to explain dual fronts for a generic two-component
reaction-diffusion system, and for the magnetic system.Comment: 19 pages, Postscript, A
On a Conjecture of Goriely for the Speed of Fronts of the Reaction--Diffusion Equation
In a recent paper Goriely considers the one--dimensional scalar
reaction--diffusion equation with a polynomial reaction
term and conjectures the existence of a relation between a global
resonance of the hamiltonian system and the asymptotic
speed of propagation of fronts of the reaction diffusion equation. Based on
this conjecture an explicit expression for the speed of the front is given. We
give a counterexample to this conjecture and conclude that additional
restrictions should be placed on the reaction terms for which it may hold.Comment: 9 pages Revtex plus 4 postcript figure
Gradients versus Cycling in Genetic Selection Models
We review the hierarchy of (continuous time) selection models starting with the classical Fisher's viability selection model, and its generalizations when allowing mutations, recombination, sex-dependent viabilities, fertility selection and different mortality rates. We analyse the question in which way Fisher's "Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection" and Kimura's Maximum Principle can be extended to these more general situations. It turns out that in many cases this is principally impossible since the dynamics becomes cycling or even chaotic
Minimal speed of fronts of reaction-convection-diffusion equations
We study the minimal speed of propagating fronts of convection reaction
diffusion equations of the form for
positive reaction terms with . The function is continuous
and vanishes at . A variational principle for the minimal speed of the
waves is constructed from which upper and lower bounds are obtained. This
permits the a priori assesment of the effect of the convective term on the
minimal speed of the traveling fronts. If the convective term is not strong
enough, it produces no effect on the minimal speed of the fronts. We show that
if , then the minimal speed is given by
the linear value , and the convective term has no effect on the
minimal speed. The results are illustrated by applying them to the exactly
solvable case . Results are also given for
the density dependent diffusion case .Comment: revised, new results adde
A nonhomogeneous boundary value problem in mass transfer theory
We prove a uniqueness result of solutions for a system of PDEs of
Monge-Kantorovich type arising in problems of mass transfer theory. The results
are obtained under very mild regularity assumptions both on the reference set
, and on the (possibly asymmetric) norm defined in
. In the special case when is endowed with the Euclidean
metric, our results provide a complete description of the stationary solutions
to the tray table problem in granular matter theory.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure
Steady states in a structured epidemic model with Wentzell boundary condition
We introduce a nonlinear structured population model with diffusion in the
state space. Individuals are structured with respect to a continuous variable
which represents a pathogen load. The class of uninfected individuals
constitutes a special compartment that carries mass, hence the model is
equipped with generalized Wentzell (or dynamic) boundary conditions. Our model
is intended to describe the spread of infection of a vertically transmitted
disease, for example Wolbachia in a mosquito population. Therefore the
(infinite dimensional) nonlinearity arises in the recruitment term. First we
establish global existence of solutions and the Principle of Linearised
Stability for our model. Then, in our main result, we formulate simple
conditions, which guarantee the existence of non-trivial steady states of the
model. Our method utilizes an operator theoretic framework combined with a
fixed point approach. Finally, in the last section we establish a sufficient
condition for the local asymptotic stability of the positive steady state
The Speed of Fronts of the Reaction Diffusion Equation
We study the speed of propagation of fronts for the scalar reaction-diffusion
equation \, with . We give a new integral
variational principle for the speed of the fronts joining the state to
. No assumptions are made on the reaction term other than those
needed to guarantee the existence of the front. Therefore our results apply to
the classical case in , to the bistable case and to cases in
which has more than one internal zero in .Comment: 7 pages Revtex, 1 figure not include
Renormalization Group Theory And Variational Calculations For Propagating Fronts
We study the propagation of uniformly translating fronts into a linearly
unstable state, both analytically and numerically. We introduce a perturbative
renormalization group (RG) approach to compute the change in the propagation
speed when the fronts are perturbed by structural modification of their
governing equations. This approach is successful when the fronts are
structurally stable, and allows us to select uniquely the (numerical)
experimentally observable propagation speed. For convenience and completeness,
the structural stability argument is also briefly described. We point out that
the solvability condition widely used in studying dynamics of nonequilibrium
systems is equivalent to the assumption of physical renormalizability. We also
implement a variational principle, due to Hadeler and Rothe, which provides a
very good upper bound and, in some cases, even exact results on the propagation
speeds, and which identifies the transition from ` linear'- to `
nonlinear-marginal-stability' as parameters in the governing equation are
varied.Comment: 34 pages, plain tex with uiucmac.tex. Also available by anonymous ftp
to gijoe.mrl.uiuc.edu (128.174.119.153), file /pub/front_RG.tex (or .ps.Z
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