3.II.13B

Mathematical Biology
Part II, 2006

A chemical system with concentrations u(x,t),v(x,t)u(x, t), v(x, t) obeys the coupled reactiondiffusion equations

dudt=ru+u2uv+κ1d2udx2dvdt=s(u2v)+κ2d2vdx2\begin{aligned} &\frac{d u}{d t}=r u+u^{2}-u v+\kappa_{1} \frac{d^{2} u}{d x^{2}} \\ &\frac{d v}{d t}=s\left(u^{2}-v\right)+\kappa_{2} \frac{d^{2} v}{d x^{2}} \end{aligned}

where r,s,κ1,κ2r, s, \kappa_{1}, \kappa_{2} are constants with s,κ1,κ2s, \kappa_{1}, \kappa_{2} positive.

(a) Find conditions on r,sr, s such that there is a steady homogeneous solution u=u0u=u_{0}, v=u02v=u_{0}^{2} which is stable to spatially homogeneous perturbations.

(b) Investigate the stability of this homogeneous solution to disturbances proportional to exp(ikx)\exp (i k x). Assuming that a solution satisfying the conditions of part (a) exists, find the region of parameter space in which the solution is stable to space-dependent disturbances, and show in particular that one boundary of this region for fixed ss is given by

dκ2κ1=2s+1u0s(2u02u0)d \equiv \sqrt{\frac{\kappa_{2}}{\kappa_{1}}}=\sqrt{2 s}+\frac{1}{u_{0}} \sqrt{s\left(2 u_{0}^{2}-u_{0}\right)}

Sketch the various regions of existence and stability of steady, spatially homogeneous solutions in the (d,u0)\left(d, u_{0}\right) plane for the case s=2s=2.

(c) Show that the critical wavenumber k=kck=k_{c} for the onset of the instability satisfies the relation

kc2=1κ1κ2[s(d2s)d(22sd)].k_{c}^{2}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\kappa_{1} \kappa_{2}}}\left[\frac{s(d-\sqrt{2 s})}{d(2 \sqrt{2 s}-d)}\right] .

Explain carefully what happens when d<2sd<\sqrt{2 s} and when d>22sd>2 \sqrt{2 s}.